


Ruination (Season 2)

by armlessphelan



Series: Ruination [3]
Category: The Bold and the Beautiful
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-18
Updated: 2015-04-30
Packaged: 2018-03-18 10:36:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 52,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3566576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armlessphelan/pseuds/armlessphelan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three months after the season 1 finale, everything has changed. There are new secrets, new relationships, and all the same old rivalries.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"RJ! Honey, come here. I want you to meet someone!" Brooke called as her son strolled past her door. He sighed, adjusted his cerulean bangs with his fingertips, and spun on his heel. When he entered her office, he saw a tall hot guy sitting in the chair in front of his mother's desk. The man was typing away on his tablet.

"I'm RJ," he said, not really interested in who the guy was but even less interested in getting by his mother.

"Thad Pasado," the man offered, looking up and holding out his hand. "It's spelled with an 'H', but it's silent."

"Gotcha." RJ didn’t shake his hand, so Thad let it drop. "And just who are you, Thad-with-a-silent-H?"

"He's my new personal assistant, RJ. We've gotten so busy the last three months that I need someone to schedule my meetings and field phone calls." Brooke smiled and told Thad to put his tablet down. "Thad, this is RJ Logan. He's my son and our head designer."

"My apologies. I was in the middle of drafting a press release about Ivy Forrester. Dreadful news about that one."

"Yeah, we can only hope she's dead for real. I mean, who knew she was capable of all of that?" RJ blew his breath upward so that his bangs danced on his forehead. "But why are you writing a press release? We have a PR department for that."

"Thad's history is in PR, RJ. He worked in the PR department for Newman Enterprises for years."

"I was just a peon writing releases and having the head of the department take credit," Thad added as he turned back to his tablet.

"And you left that job to be my mom's personal assistant why?"

"When Newman went public, Thad was laid off," Brooke explained. Then she looked at her assistant. "It's okay to tell him that, right?"

"Oh yeah. It's fine." Thad turned back to his tablet and shrugged. "Any time there's an IPO, restructuring happens. I'd made enough money to be comfortable for a few years, but I moved to LA thinking I could be an actor. Except I'm apparently not very good at it. And I tried working at some of the PR firms out here, but those people... No offence, but Los Angeles makes Victor Newman look less like an angry tyrant and more like a crabby old man."

"I beg to differ," RJ said as he recalled his confrontations with the old man. "Whatever. I have work to do. Was there anything else?"

"Yes. RJ, could you tell Amber that we are NOT having a stripper pole installed in the break room just because Jake in accounting says he has angry talents?" Broke sighed.

"Angry talents? I think you mean mad skillz, Mom. And Jake isn't from accounting, he is accounting. As in the whole department. And he wants to know when we're hiring someone to handle the international numbers because he can barely keep up with domestic."

"As soon as he's done with the press release, Thad is setting up interviews with promising applicants. We really need an HR department."

"And that's why you're CEO. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go tell Jake that I need a preview before we invest in a pole."

"RJ, that’s not funny!" Brooke called out as her son skipped out of her office. "WE ARE NOT GETTING A STRIPPER POLE!"

B&B

Seeing his son Wyatt suffer through physical therapy was hard, but seeing the woman who ran him down get off with community service was maddening. Bill Spencer wanted to see her destroyed. Taylor Hayes had made a habit of ruining everything for everybody, and she needed to be stopped. And Ridge Forrester needed to be punished for standing by her side throughout the whole trial.

"You say your name is Eden?"

"Eden Baldwin. Yes, Sir," the woman answered with a nod. "I was so surprised to have you call me personally. I mean, I'm just a journalism student and you're..."

"Tired of hearing you give extended answers when a simple 'yes' or ' no' would suffice," Bill said, cutting her off. "My son Liam is friends with RJ Logan. I heard from him that RJ had a friend who wanted to be a journalist. I'm willing to give you a shot, let you shadow me and do some intern work. But I need you to do some things on the side for me. They're things you might not agree with, but will eventually realize are for the best."

Eden tilted her head and looked at Bill oddly. "Mr. Spencer, what are you talking about?"

"Miss Baldwin, you are friends with RJ Logan, yes? And you dated his boyfriend Noah?"

When the woman's eyes grew hard, Bill grinned. "Noah was mine. RJ knew that. What exactly are you asking me to do, Mr. Spencer?"

"Eden? Yes, Eden, RJ's father Ridge is involved with my niece Caroline. Engaged, even. I don't approve of that. Neither does RJ or anyone else, but for some reason those two think they love each other. I can't have that. And that's where you come in."

"What are you talking about? I never met RJ's father."

"No, but you know RJ's boyfriend. You know him intimately. And I want you to seduce him back into your bed." Bill began to lay out the rest of his plan. He told Eden exactly what she would say and do and how it would ruin his niece's relationship with his nemesis.

"Mr. Spencer, this is very convoluted. Why not just hire me to seduce Ridge himself? And what makes you think I would go along with this? That I won't just out you to everyone involved the moment I walk out that door?"

"Because I know you aren't Eden Baldwin. Victor Newman isn't only person who knows Dr. Fascinella." Bill grinned and leaned back into his chair, laughing at the woman's shock. "I know Victor was going to have you seduce Noah anyway. I may not know where the real Eden Baldwin is, but I also don't care. This is all going to go down in the way that benefits me the most."

"Victor Newman isn't someone you want to cross, and neither am I," the woman warned.

"In my entire life, only two people ever scared me. One was my father, Bill Spencer Sr. He's dead."

"And the other?"

Bill leaned forward, fists on his desk. "Let's just say that it's neither you nor Victor Newman."

B&B

"Is anybody home?" Liam asked while knocking on the door to RJ and Noah's flat. "I come bearing vegan pizza with locally sourced ingredients and fair trade chocolate!"

"If you'd just left it at pizza and chocolate, I might have opened the door, but all those other words have convinced me to leave it locked," Noah answered.

"You invited me over!"

The door opened and Noah rolled his eyes. "And I thought you would be bringing real food, like a real person."

"Don't knock it until you've tried it." Liam slipped past Noah, two pizza boxes in one hand and a bag of chocolate bars in the other. "Did you like that almond milk I left here the last time?"

"No. I went out and bought a gallon of real milk. As in from a cow. I still haven't adjusted to how expensive everything is out here. Or how many people have personal shoppers or get their groceries delivered. Back in Genoa City, we're a lot more low key about being rich."

"That's Wisconsin, mi amigo. This is Los Angeles. Soon enough, you'll be accustomed to everything. It took me awhile to adapt."

"I’ve talked to Hope, Liam. You went from a geeky computer repair dude to eating bread made out of rice."

"That stuff is delicious." Liam argued as he held up a finger. "You would know that if you actually tried it."

"I used that loaf you brought over last week to finally fix that hole my mom left in the wall. For some reason, RJ wanted to keep it as a shrine."

"Fine, no chocolate for you." Liam turned up his nose and set the pizzas on the dining table. "RJ's not home yet?"

"He's still at work. Which is why you're here! Because it is apparently next to impossible to make friends in this city. I have you, and I have Amber. And since Amber is always working with RJ, you get stuck keeping me from turning into that crazy shut-in airplane guy from the 50s."

"Howard Hughes?" Liam sat his burlap sacks on the table and pulled out a chocolate bar. "Want some?"

"Is it real chocolate or some of that carob stuff? Because that was gross." Noah looked at the offering suspiciously.

"It's 73% cacao. It's as close to pure chocolate as you can get without any of the horrible child labour!"

"But that's what makes it taste so good," Noah said as he snatched the bar from Liam and peeled back the wrapper. He sniffed the chocolate while Liam chuckled.

"If you don't trust me, you can ask me to stop bringing you food."

"I never asked you to start," Noah pointed out as he snapped off a corner of the chocolate bar and tossed it into his mouth. He chewed on it instead of letting it melt, but Liam had the self-control to not say anything about it. "Okay, fine, this passes. But don't expect me to eat that stuff that is most definitely not pizza."

"More for me then." Liam walked over to the cupboard above the stove, pulled out a plate, and walked back to the table to get a couple slices of his pizza. It was bell pepper with green olives and fried tofu and Noah really was missing out. "So, what are we doing tonight to keep you from going out and experiencing the world?"

"Scooby-Doo is on Netflix. And I do go out into the world. It's just really, really hard to get a record deal when you're a solo guitarist with no vocals."

"Digital era, man. Make your own music, release it on the internet, and get famous." Liam sat on the sofa and waited for his friend to join him. "It's not like the modern music industry isn't a decade away from collapsing."

"And print is dying but you're still working for a publishing company." Noah opened the fridge to see what was available to eat. "I miss working at my dad's bar. I never thought I would say that, but when you're living in your boyfriend's loft and off his income and you spend all day mailing CDs to record labels and emailing follow up questions... I need something to do with my time because oh my god I'm bored."

"I could get you a column in one of music magazines. Are you any good at writing?"

"You've heard my lyrics."

Liam laughed. "So that's a no. Fine. But you're doing the music thing again. RJ told me awhile back that you'd stopped."

"When my friend Devon tried starting his own label, I was there with him. But now he's doing god knows what and I'm fucking useless."

Setting his plate down on the coffee table, Liam stood up and shook his head. "Dude, if you need something to do, I can seriously get you something at Spencer. Even if it's just to kill time. I mean, Spencer Publications does own Axe magazine. You can be an unpaid intern during the day and make connections that'll help you get that record deal you don't need."

"Why unpaid?" Noah asked, shutting the fridge. His hands empty.

"Because my dad may have made me CEO, but hell will freeze over before he lets me pay the interns." Liam sat back down and turned on the TV. "Now get your food and let’s watch those meddling kids and their dog."

B&B

"How is everything?" Brooke asked as she laid her head on Liam's chest and played with his sword necklace. She half-hated herself for loving how safe she felt in his arms. What had started as a drunken one night stand, a random mistake, became a deliberate affair.

It felt weird to call it an affair. Neither one of them was married. Ivy had left Liam months ago for another man and Brooke hadn't had anyone serious since well before that.

"It's okay." Liam kissed the top of Brooke's head. "Noah's still lonely. He has nobody out here except RJ and Amber. I hung out there again today because Noah’s a nice enough guy and I like RJ, but I don't have anything in common with either one of them."

"Well, you and Noah have one thing in common," Brooke bragged as she brushed her hair from her face and wiggled her eyebrows. "Let's hope he never realizes that."

“To quote your son, ‘stop bringing up that you banged Noah! It’s gross’.”

"I love you," Brooke laughed as she reached up and played with Liam's hair.

"I know," he said, smiling into her hair. "I love you, too. It's why I put up with you being a brat. Like that stuff just now about Noah."

"Aren't you the man who keeps telling my son that you're gonna wreck his happy home with Noah?" Brooke smirked as her fingers traced a line from Liam's temple to his chin.

"No, RJ keeps telling me that I'm gonna do that. Then he pouts when I remind him that I'm straight."

Brooke sat up in the bed, looking down at Liam in the moonlight. "Maybe next time, instead of that, you should just tell him that you're mine."

She leaned down and kissed her man. It was a kiss goodbye.

"Can't you stay at least one night?"

"I would love to, but what if someone stopped by?"

"Right. Nobody can know."

"At least not yet," Brooke assured Liam. She put on her bra, then leaned into another kiss. "Someday. I won't make you wait forever."

"You're worth forever."

There was nothing Brooke could say to that. She didn't believe it, so she just finished getting dressed and left.


	2. Chapter 2

"You're working at a magazine?" RJ zipped around the loft, grabbing everything he would need for work. Then he saw himself in the mirror, stopped, and used his fingernail to clean a black spot off one of his teeth. "Since when do you write? Or even work?"

"It's a music magazine, and I'm interning. It's a way to network so I can get the ears of A&R departments. I thought you would be more, well, supportive."

Noah sounded annoyed to RJ, so he turned to his boyfriend and flashed his freshly scraped teeth at him with a smile.

"Honestly, I'm glad you're finally doing something other than going to the gym or sitting on the couch. You need a life. When does this thing start?" RJ looked back to the mirror and started to play with his hair. He was starting to get bored of solid colours. Maybe a midnight blue with pink streaks would freshen things up?

"Liam is supposed to call and let me know after he speaks to the Editor-in-Chief of Axe."

"So it isn't even finalized yet?" RJ clicked his tongue and spun away from the mirror. "Don't count your chickens, Noah."

"What does that even mean?"

RJ shrugged. "How should I know? It's something old people always say. It just sounded good. Listen, if it happens, I'll take you out to dinner and we'll celebrate all proper like. But I have to leave for work right now because we're having the models fitted for our winter line and Maya will have me beheaded if I'm late."

"Winter? But it's barely summer."

"It's so cute how you've been living here this long and still don't understand how anything works." RJ patted his boyfriend on the head, grabbed his bag off the couch, and ran out the door.

B&B

"What are you doing here, Bill?" Ridge asked through a mouthful of a Snickers bar. He swallowed, then stuffed the other half into his mouth. "And who is your new lackey?"

Bill smirked and Ridge wanted to punch him.

"This is Eden, my new intern. She's shadowing me today to see what it's like to do a real job. Eden, see what this man is doing? That's what is known as scribbling. It is not a real job."

"What do you want, Bill?" Ridge threw down his pencil and regarded his rival. "Do you plan on spending all your time insulting me now that you have your wife and your son doing all of your work at Spencer?"

"You would be surprised just how much work I have even when I'm not CEO, Ridge. But as much fun as it is belittling you, I have other things to do. I'm here to visit my niece. Where is Caroline?"

"She's in a meeting with Rick and some thing. Do you want me to give her a message?"

"No, that's fine. I'll see her later." Bill snapped his fingers and Eden jumped to attention. "We're leaving."

"Girl, you be careful around this man," Ridge warned Eden as she and Bill began to leave the office. "He threw me out of a helicopter."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Bill laughed. Then he snapped his fingers again and Eden closed the door.

B&B

Even though it was through a video chat, Liam hated seeing the disappointment on Noah's face.

"Really? He said no? How can he tell you, the CEO of the company, no? Your dad owns that magazine."

"Yeah, about that. We actually don't. We just own the American print and worldwide digital distribution rights. Axe magazine is published by Spencer, but we have no creative input. When I deigned to suggest taking you on as an intern, I called a nepotistic nancy boy and the editor hung up on me." Liam knew that would never have happened to his dad, but Liam also knew everyone hated his dad. Fear and intimidation were not how he wanted to run the company.

"That sucks. Man, I was really hoping you'd come through for me. Thanks for trying."

Giving a half-hearted smile, Liam made another offer. "They’re not music-focused, but we do have other magazines. A lot of them. And we own them! I can email you a list and all you have to do is let me know if you want to work on one."

"I don't..." Noah sighed. Then he gave Liam a defeated smile. "Yeah, sure. You do that. Thanks."

"I don't know who you're talking to, but you need to hang up, Liam. I want you to meet my new intern, Eden Baldwin."

Liam looked to his dad and the pale woman with black hair standing just beside him. He nodded, then turned back to his phone. "I've gotta go, man. Mein führer is here. I'll email you that list later."

"Did he say E-" Noah's question was cut off as Liam exited the app. He felt bad about just hanging up, but he really didn't want to deal with his dad's bluster about being ignored.

B&B

"Mr. Logan?"

RJ and Amber spun in their chairs simultaneously.

"Who are you, and will you marry me?" Amber asked as she held out her left hand. "The ring goes on this finger."

"Amber, shut up," RJ ordered, rolling his eyes in mild annoyance. "Thad, this is Amber Moore. She's the co-owner of Logan & Moore and my design partner. Amber, this is Thad Zapado."

"Pasado," Thad corrected. He smiled and handed a manila folder to RJ. "Your mother sent me to deliver these, Mr. Logan. They're her notes on your new designs."

"Make yourself useful and read these." RJ gave the folder to Amber. He then spun around in his chair, stopped it, and smiled up at Thad. "And you, stop being so formal. Call me RJ."

"And you can call me Mrs. Pasado," Amber suggested as she licked her lips.

RJ poked Amber with his pencil, leaving a smear on her arm. "Down girl. We don't need a sexual harassment lawsuit."

"I don't mind. She's cute and it's funny," Thad chuckled. Amber lit up. "Sadly, you're barking up the wrong tree, Miss Moore. I'm gay."

"Like I care about that." Amber waved one of her hands in the air. "I will have you know that I have made out with many a gay man when I hang out at the clubs with RJ here."

Then RJ snickered. "Amber, those weren't guys: they were very butch lesbians. I mean, there was all the plaid and the facial piercings as clues."

"NO!" Amber gasped. She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Actually, yeah, that makes more sense."

Then she shrugged and looked back to Thad.

"Are you a lesbian? Because apparently I'm one now. We can be all lesbionic together. It would be really hot."

"Goodbye, Miss Moore," Thad said with a grin and a wave. Then he nodded to RJ. "See you around... RJ."

Amber poke RJ in the side with her pencil as soon as Thad was gone. "I hate you."

"What? Why?" RJ slapped the pencil out of Amber's hand, so she slapped his hand back. Soon enough, they were in a playful slap fight and laughing.

"How is it every hot guy in this city is either gay or dating a Logan woman?" Amber sighed, lowered her hands, and picked up the folder Thad had delivered. "Even you have someone."

"What do you mean even I have someone? Why wouldn't I have someone?" RJ protested dramatically, putting his foot on Amber's chair and pushing her away from the desk. "I'm a catch!"

"You're high maintenance and loud." Amber opened the folder, started looking through it, grimaced, closed it, and threw it at RJ. "Not today. You are dealing with your mother because she wants us to not have a bedazzled piece."

"I told you she'd hate it." RJ shook his finger in Amber's direction. She threatened to break it.

B&B

"Bill was here? Why?" Rick asked the person on the other end of his phone call. Layla didn't really know this Bill guy, just what she had heard other people say, but he always seemed to piss Ridge off. Anything or anyone that pissed off Ridge Forrester or Caroline Spencer was aces in Layla Williamson's book.

"This Bill guy is your uncle, right?" Layla asked Caroline. "You guys close?"

"We're family. I don't know how things are in whatever project you grew up in, but family tends to be close here in Los Angeles."

"You're from New York, so quit acting like you know more about LA than I do. It's old. And I didn't grow up in the projects." Layla really, really wanted to slap Caroline every time she spoke.

"Sure you didn't." Caroline sipped her coffee and looked at Rick. "Uncle Bill can wait. I've been trapped in this ghetto ass meeting all damn day. The fumes from her weave glue is giving me a headache."

"You ain't cute with this ghetto stuff. It'll catch up to you someday. Karma is a bitch," Layla warned Caroline.

"And so is Caroline, which I know you've noticed in your four months working here," Ricked added as he hung up his phone and joined the conversation. "Caroline, be as stubborn as the jackass you're marrying on about anything else, but this is business. Layla's stuff is great, but I just need you to look it over and give it that Forrester shine. It's a collection for a new market, but it's still a Forrester collection. And we need good press after that Ivy stuff."

"Oh, fuck Ivy. Her death and everything she did in New York is just an excuse. You know this thing has no talent and you want me to be a ghost designer. No, Rick. Ridge and I are busy enough as it is without you trying to bully me into picking up Leanne's slack."

"It's Layla," she corrected through gritted teeth. "Why can't you ever get it right?"

"Why can't you get back to Atlanta where you belong?" Caroline asked as she kept tilting her head in different directions. Layla wanted to know which direction it would go in after it was hit with a chair. "Rick, my answer, for the fiftieth time, is no. It will always be no. I will not work with Laura and that's that."

"I didn't want to work with you anyway!" Layla exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "Rick, I'll just make the alterations according to your notes. We're already ahead of schedule on the fall line and it got positive reviews. So clearly we don't need Caroline or Ridge helping out with my winter line."

"Positive reviews don't equal good sales. L&M outsold you," Caroline reminded Layla. "And that was with the Forrester name backing you up."

"Layla is a new designer." Rick's defense was sweet, but Layla didn't need it.

"It outsold you, too. Not in dollar share, but in units. And I turned a profit. So I'm an asset to this company by virtue of my own hard work. You have Ridge's reputation keeping your stale designs afloat. And his reputation isn't shit to my customers anyway."

"Forrester did well without your customers for decades. They aren't needed and neither are you," Caroline shot back. She stood up and glared at Rick. "I'm leaving. The next time I come to a meeting, you and Lulu better have learned how to be professional."

B&B

Noah just stared. It was her. It was really her. He wanted to run to her, hold her, kiss her, and tell her how much he had missed her and that he wanted her back. Instead, he just kept watching her run the copying machine.

"I'm almost done. You can have it in a mi..." Eden turned to the man watching her and jumped. When she spoke, her voice was quiet. "Noah? Noah Newman?"

"My god. It's really you. You're here in Los Angeles." Noah licked his lips and nervously tried to smooth down his hair.

"I was offered an internship. It's a huge opportunity. I would've been crazy to turn it down." Eden bit her thumbnail and ran her eyes over Noah. He leaned against the doorway, no longer trusting his own feet to keep him upright. "You look good. I'm glad you're doing so well out here."

"And you're as beautiful as ever," Noah breathed, smiling genuinely for the first time in weeks.

For a moment, just a fraction of a second, Eden frowned. If he had blinked Noah would have missed it. His insides turned cold even though she had quickly resumed smiling.

"You work here, too?" Eden asked, holding her hand out and sweeping it across the copy room.

"Where? Here? Spencer? No. I mean, not yet. I'm friends with the CEO and he's trying to get me something. It's just to kill time. I'm trying to get a record deal, after all." Noah stopped his rambling and forced himself to breathe.

Eden brushed her hair behind her shoulders and laughed. It was nervous. "I'm glad you're back into music. You had... I kinda thought you had quit. It's good that you didn't."

"Yeah. RJ really helped me a lot." Then Noah stopped smiling.

He had a boyfriend. He had a boyfriend that he loved and lived with and whom he had completely forgotten about the moment he heard Eden's name come out of the speaker on his phone.

"You do know about RJ, right?" Noah asked Eden, his heartbeat slowing and his senses returning. "I don't know how you couldn't."

Just like before, Eden frowned for a nanosecond. She was back to smiling when she answered him. It didn't change the fact that he had seen her looking unhappy at the mention of his boyfriend.

"Yes, Noah. I know about you and RJ. You are my ex-boyfriend, so of course when you were outed as gay everyone called to tell me. It was... It was definitely a surprise. Are you happy with him?"

"I'm not gay," Noah explained, not answering her question. "RJ is, and we all knew it back in Paris well before he did, but I'm not. I'm..."

Noah stopped talking because he didn't know why he was saying what he was saying. Except, he did know and he hated himself for it.

"I do love him," Noah ended up saying, licking his lips and forcing his eyes away from Eden. There was a tear on the cuff of his sweatshirt and he started pulling at the loose threads. "We're good."

"That's... I'm happy you're good, Noah. Both of you. I'm still apartment hunting. The move was so sudden. Michael and Lauren are paying for my hotel room, but I need someplace more permanent. Do you have any suggestions?"

"I don't... I haven't lived here that long. I still get lost if I try to go to more than two places in one trip. Sorry. Google is going to be more helpful than I am." Noah still wasn't looking at Eden. "I need to... I've gotta go. See ya."

And before she could return the farewell, Noah was walking away. The thud of his heartbeat grew heavier with each passing second.


	3. Chapter 3

"It was really Eden?" Amber asked. She looked a bit shocked, then recovered and blew the foam off her cappuccino and onto the table. "That had to be weird. How did RJ take it?"

"I didn't tell him." Noah played with the rim of his cup and stared at the coffee company's logo. "We had enough problems when we first got together: he's got his hang-ups about his dad and Caroline, and there was that stuff with my mom and my grandfather. But we got over that for the most part. RJ still hates his dad and avoids him whenever possible, but Victor seems to have backed off."

"But Eden is Eden," Amber said, voicing the thought Noah didn't want to say aloud.

"Yeah. Nobody knows this, nobody but me and RJ, but that night at the airport when that Taylor woman recorded us and then leaked it to the press... I was just coming back from chasing him to Paris. He'd arrived a day ahead of me."

"This was right after you slept with Brooke, right?"

Even though she was just asking for the sake of clarification, Noah wanted to call Amber a bitch for bringing it up. Instead, he groaned.

"Yes. When RJ found out I slept with Brooke he took off for Paris and I chased after him. And he beat me back here to LA and while I was flying back he was with Eden.

"She had seen the headlines about me and Brooke. Everyone did, really. But she came to see if RJ was okay. When we all lived together in Paris, Eden knew RJ had a thing for me but she didn't know I was bi. Hell, I didn't know! But we knew RJ was gay and it was no big deal because I was with Eden and then she wasn't there."

"She had moved back to Genoa City and yada yada. Speed it along. What happened with you and RJ at the airport?" Amber twirled her hair between her fingers and took a sip of her drink.

"Eden never knew that RJ and I were involved. When she and I ran into each other again, after I had spent my year in Paris with RJ, I didn't tell her. I don't know why. But when she came here to visit him he didn't tell her, either. She found out just like everyone else. But..."

"But what?"

"But RJ was at the airport seeing Eden off. I saw her getting in line to get on the plane and all I wanted to do was scream at her to stop. I didn't even... I didn’t see that she was with RJ until she'd turned her back, Amber. And when I asked him if that was her, he told me it was.

"And then he asked me if I would have ben talking to him if she hadn't gotten on her plane."

"Damn. That's fucked up, Noah." Amber sat her drink on the table and reached over to hold his hand. She and Noah didn't really care about the paparazzi guy across the street who was doing a terrible job of hiding. It wasn't like he could hear them. "What did you say?"

"I told him I didn't know. I told him that I didn't know and then I told him I still loved him and I kissed him and you know everything else." Noah closed his eyes and squeezed Amber's hand. After a deep breath, he opened them. "I love RJ, Amber. I wouldn't be here if I didn't. But when I heard Liam's dad say her name, I ran right to the Spencer Publishing offices just on the chance it was her.

“I completely forgot that I had a boyfriend who I live with because it's Eden. It's her and I don't want to leave RJ but it's Eden."

"Before you do something stupid, listen to someone who has done every stupid thing possible: tell RJ. He'll be mad and whiny but he'll appreciate it. Just don't tell him about the whole forgetting he existed thing. Because that's asking for trouble." Amber looked at her phone and jumped in her seat. "Oh shit! My lunch break was over ten minutes ago."

"Don't you own half the company? It's not like Brooke can fire you."

"No, but she can yell. A lot. And ever since she stopped drinking at the office she's been extra crabby."

Amber put the lid back on her coffee and ran off, leaving Noah alone at the table. He turned around and waved to the photographer. The guy waved back and Noah chuckled. It was a needed moment of levity because when he turned back around Amber's chair was no longer empty.

"What the hell do you want?"

"Noah, I know you aren't fond of me..." The woman didn't get to finish her sentence because Noah wouldn't let her.

"Taylor, you outed me to the press to get at Brooke. You outed RJ. And then you hit a man with your car and ran to RJ's daddy to help keep you out of jail. And while I don't hate Ridge, I do hate you."

Taylor tried to smile and Noah fought the urge to throw his coffee in her face. "Noah, I already apologized a million times for outing you and RJ. And Wyatt was an accident! He just came out of nowhere."

"I don't care. Go away." Noah drank his coffee so that he wouldn't cause a scene in front of the paparazzi.

"Noah, I never pressed charges against your mother. The least you can do is hear me out."

Noah snorted. "No court would've convicted her, but whatever you have two minutes."

"I can't tell you why, but I need to tell you stay away from Eden Baldwin. Noah, just trust me on this. Please."

"Go to hell, Taylor. You eavesdropped on my conversation with Amber? Really? And then you want to tell me how to live my life after you made a wreck of how many others? Fuck you."

Noah slammed his coffee down on the table, spilling it on himself. He shook his hand and blew on the burns, all while glaring at her. Then he stood up and walked away.

B&B

"Do you know the name Eden Baldwin?" Liam asked Brooke as they sat on her sofa, eating rice cakes he had picked up at the whole foods market and drinking sparkling peach cider she'd had flown in from Savannah.

"It sounds familiar. Why?" Brooke asked. She took a sip of the cider from her champagne flute and savoured it. She enjoyed the nights like this, where they just enjoyed each other with no thoughts of sex. It wasn't that Brooke hated the sex. In fact, she loved it, but she appreciated that there was more to her relationship with Liam than physicality.

"My dad made a big deal about introducing me to his new intern yesterday. Except he never cared about interns before. He never even bothered to learn their names. So I googled her."

"What is it, Liam?" Brooke sat up and put her free hand on the back of the sofa. "Who is this Eden and why does she matter?"

"Well, I know you know Lauren Fenmore. Eden is her sister-in-law. But in addition to that... Well, she's Noah's ex-girlfriend."

Brooke drained her glass and wished for a moment it was something stronger. "Noah, as in RJ's boyfriend?"

"Yeah. I don't know how serious they were, since it was back when they were all in high school, but I found her Myspace page and it was covered with pictures of the two of them all over Paris. RJ was in a bunch of them, too." Liam put his arm around Brooke's shoulders. "I guess she won some journalism internship thing at her college. Or that's what they told me, but I don't remember anything about it. I just thought you'd want to know in case RJ says something. I mean, god, you know how he acts whenever he thinks some woman is hitting on Noah."

Nodding, Brooke leaned forward and grabbed the bottle of cider and refilled her flute. "I know he loves Noah, and Noah loves him, but my son is very insecure underneath all of his bluster."

"He gets it from his mother." Liam began massaging Brooke's shoulders and she found herself involuntarily whimpering with delight. Then she groaned when the doorbell rang.

"I'll answer it. You go hide in the kitchen," Brooke said, handing Liam the plate of rice cakes. Again, she downed her glass of cider and sat it on the table. "Coming. I'm coming. Who is it?"

"It's Thad, Ms. Logan. Sorry for stopping by so late and unannounced, but you weren't answering your phone. I took your tablet home by mistake, which means you probably have mine."

Sighing, Brooke opened her door. "This couldn't have waited until the morning?"

"Again, I'm really sorry considering it's still my first week, but I didn't think you would want me walking around with digital copies of the company's new designs. My apartment isn't as secure as your, uh, mansion." Thad stopped talking long enough to marvel at Brooke's foyer. She took her tablet from his hand and told him to wait while she fetched his.

"Ms. Logan, there is one other thing," Thad said as Brooke started up the stairs. She stopped and looked back to him. "I'm very good at being discreet. I won't say a word to anybody."

"About what, Thad?"

He leaned back and looked out the window. "The car in your driveway, the license plate says 'Spencer'. I know Mr. Spencer is here. I won't tell your sister or anybody else a thing."

"You think I'm sleeping with Bill?" Brooke started back down the stairs. Was her new assistant really going to try to blackmail her?

"I don't mean to assume anything, but there's the car and two glasses and I did research your company before I applied for the job." Thad didn't smile. In fact, he looked as if he regretted saying anything at all.

"What I do in my personal life is none of your business, but for the record I am not sleeping with my sister's husband." Brooke sat her tablet down on a nearby table and looked Thad over.

"Brooke, that's enough," Liam said as he entered the room. She groaned and grabbed the side of her head. "The guy wasn't trying to insult you. He was assuring you he wouldn't say anything. He just had the wrong Spencer man. Hi, I'm Liam."

"I'm Thad Pasado." He reached out and grabbed Liam's hand, shaking it nervously. "I'm Ms. Logan's assistant. I hope."

Liam smiled and clapped a hand on Thad's chest. "She won't fire you for this. Don't worry. Just go home. You'll get your tablet back tomorrow and Brooke will be in a better mood. I promise."

Sensing it was time to leave, Thad excused himself, gave an awkward nod to Brooke, and closed the door behind him when he left.

"Were you really that bothered by what he said?" Liam asked. He started rubbing Brooke's arms and kissed her forehead. "He's my age, Brooke. Even people in their twenties think like dumb teenagers. He made a not unreasonable assumption and wanted you to know you didn't have to worry."

"I know," Brooke sighed. She wrapped her arms around Liam's waist and pulled him close. "I'll apologize to him in the morning. It's just... I don't know. I'm getting sick of sneaking around, but I don't want to hurt Hope or your father."

"Hope is still married to Wyatt, and my dad is married to Katie. They've moved on. Why can't you and I?"

Brooke kissed Liam. "Can you stay over tonight? We don't need to have sex, but I think I want to wake up in your arms."

"For you?" Liam pulled Brooke even closer and she inhaled his scent. "I would do just about anything."

B&B

When Taylor returned home, she found that she wasn't alone.

"How are you doing, Dr. Hayes?" A man was sitting in a chair in her living room, staring at his phone. He looked up at her but his face was unreadable. She didn’t recognize him.

"Why are you in my house?" Taylor closed her door even though she was scared.

"Do you already know who I am? That would be the first question most people would ask."

"It doesn't matter who you are. I know Victor Newman sent you. He needs to leave those boys alone." Taylor slid her keys between her fingers in case she had to defend herself. "Just deliver whatever threat he sent and get out of my house."

"He knows you snooped through Dr. Fascinella's files the last time you visited his clinic. You came across information that you shouldn't possess. We just want to make sure you keep it to yourself. We have people watching."

The man threw a photo on Taylor's table. It was of her and Noah Newman, sitting outside of the cafe earlier that afternoon.

"What did you say to him?"

"Nothing." Taylor gripped her key ring so hard she could feel the thin metal start to bend. "He didn't give me a chance to say a word. I wouldn't anyway."

"Good. We all have our secrets, Dr. Hayes. And if you divulge ours, then we would have no choice but to share yours. And you wouldn't want anyone to know about your secret patient. Or would you?"

"You know about her?" Taylor gasped, holding her free hand to her chest. "But how?"

"Not everyone is like you, Dr. Hayes. We don't go through confidential files out of boredom or curiosity. Mr. Newman purposely keeps tabs on everyone he's come into contact with, especially the ones that could be a danger to his family. And there is nobody more dangerous than her." The man stood up and checked the time on his phone. "Now, it's getting late. Remember what we talked about."


	4. Chapter 4

"It really is you." RJ crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. He was smiling. "Why didn't you tell me you were back in town?"

"Hey, RJ!" Katie said cheerfully, approaching her nephew and hugging him. "How did you get in here?"

Returning his aunt's embrace, RJ squeezed her extra tight. "The maid let me in. I thought you and Bill were still on your honeymoon."

"Uncle Bill," Katie reminded him with a laugh.

"I am never calling him that. But it's great to have you back. When I came back for the L&C launch things were so busy that I never got to see you. Then we became L&M and you got married and left for your honeymoon. It's been really hectic. The wedding was lovely for the most part, though."

"For the most part?" Katie chuckled and released her nephew. "What didn't you like?"

"Why would you invite my dad and Caroline? They had an affair behind your back." RJ looked off to the side and scuffed his feet on the floor. "It was just weird."

Katie caressed RJ's cheek and he looked up at her. There were tears in his eyes. "I loved your dad, RJ, but Ridge and I weren't going to work out. There was just so much working against us. When he and Caroline happened, I could either let him go or try to keep him, and whatever had brought us together was long since gone."

"That doesn't make it okay for him to cheat on you like that." RJ wiped his eyes and sighed angrily.

"You didn't come here to talk about Ridge and me. What's up, RJ?" Katie walked to the play pen and picked Will up. RJ immediately perked up and began making faces at his cousin.

"Noah and I had a talk the other day. Liam's getting him an internship at Spencer, and I wanted to invite you to a celebratory dinner tomorrow night. Bill and this awesome little guy can come, too. I... I already invited my mom. So if you don't want to come, I totally understand."

"We would love to be there, RJ. Where and when?"

Will giggled and slapped RJ in the face. It just made RJ guffaw.

"Yeah, that's right. You get to practicing that shit now. There are a lot of bitches in the world who need slapped," RJ told Will as he grabbed Will’s hand and playfully made his cousin slap himself.

"Language," Katie warned as she grabbed Will's other hand and made her son slap RJ again. "If I have to tell you again, I'll be the one doing the slapping."

"Sorry, Aunt Katie. Bad habits."

"I hope you get rid of those habits before you get a kid of your own."

After shaking his head, RJ laughed and released Will. He wiped his hand on his pants and shrugged. "That's never gonna happen. I love being an uncle and a cousin, but I know I'll be a horrible dad. I like owning expensive things, and kids like breaking things. They don't really go together."

"You'll change your mind someday," Katie assured RJ as she handed Will over to him. The toddler began playing with the streaks running through RJ's hair.

"You like silver? Huh? I agree, Little Man. Gold is so overrated." RJ bounced Will in one arm and reached up with the other to move his black bangs back in place. "Nah, Aunt Katie. This? This is fine. But this is all I want. Really. I know I'm selfish and self-absorbed and spoiled and every other thing you shouldn't be before you become a parent."

"Oh please." Katie rolled her eyes and waved her hands at Will, who released RJ's hair long enough to wave back. "You're just like Bill and he's a great dad."

RJ looked at Katie like she needed to start wearing a helmet. "Did you hit your head? Do you have brain damage? I am nothing like Bill. Or have you never met either one of us?"

"You're both vain, loud, and say exactly what you're thinking without a care to anyone else's feelings, RJ. You have more in common with Bill Spencer than you think."

"If you tell me he was on the DL in college, I am walking out of this house and never looking back."

"No, RJ. Believe me, if your uncle was bisexual or whatever, he would be as deluded about men as he is women."

B&B

"How did you do it for so long?" Layla asked Maya. They had met up for cocktails at least once a week just to catch up. Rick had asked Maya to be friendly with Layla, because nobody else was, but the two had genuinely hit it off.

"Do what?" Maya asked while checking her phone.

"Survive at Forrester for so long without shooting up the place? Everyone there hates me except for Rick. Caroline and Ridge have done everything but burn a cross in front of my office. And there's that Aly girl... She's just weird."

"Ooooh. That. Yeah. There's a reason I jumped ship for a lesser paying gig when Brooke offered me a place at L&M."

"I thought it was to promote diversity in the fashion industry." Layla played with her salad, but didn't actually eat it. "Isn't that L&M's whole mission statement?"

"Okay, so there's two reasons. Promoting diversity, and getting away from Klanoline Spencer and her rotund paramour. Believe me, I dealt with those two for two years. Caroline, mostly. She's the instigator."

"Don't I know it. It's just... Rick took a chance on me, gave me my own line and it's doing well. I don't want to leave Forrester, and I don't want to leak this to the press and make things bad for the company."

"Why not?" Maya reached into Layla's salad and pulled out a grape tomato. "Go to Rick. Tell him that you want to confront Ridge and Caroline about being racist pricks, and tell him you want to record it. Publicly shame those two bitches and make Rick look good by having him defend you. You can drive Ridge to an early retirement, maybe even force him to sell his shares. And with him gone, they can fire Caroline. You'll be the only designer left. You won't be the woman behind Forrester's budget line. You will BE Forrester Creations."

"That's really, really well thought out for being on the fly, Maya. But I love it." Layla laughed and toasted her friend. Maya clinked her glass against Layla's.

"Oh, it's not something I just came up with. I was looking to do it before I left Forrester, but it seemed like sour grapes after I moved to L&M. Plus, Rick and I weren't together that first month, anyway."

"You know, I think I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna talk to Rick, and then we're gonna bring those bitches down."

"Goodbye Reich Forrester, and goodbye KKKaroline!" Maya laughed before sipping her wine.

B&B

"Thanks again for getting me in at D-Pad, Liam. I don't know anything about blogging, but do I play video games."

"Just remember to go to the third floor tomorrow morning. The site only has four people as regular staff who work in the building: that's who you report to. Everyone else is, like, a writer or contributor. They live all over the world. I talked to Jenna and she's excited to have you start."

Noah started to say something, but there was a knock at his door. "I've gotta answer that, but again, thank you! I owe you, Man. RJ already invited you to dinner tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. I'm gonna fry some tofu for everyone."

"You do that. Anyway, bye!" Noah waved into the camera and then closed the app and tossed his tablet on the sofa. He ran over to the door, wiped his hands on his pants and opened it. "Oh."

"Hi. Is it okay if I come in? Or would that be weird?"

Noah stepped to the side and let Eden pass. He made sure there was enough space between them that they wouldn't brush up against each other.

"This is where you live." Eden looked around the loft, taking it all in. "It's so... Not you."

"RJ does all the decorating. Once a month or so he donates everything to some charity auction and then buys new furniture and stuff. About the only constants raw the bed and that." Noah pointed to the guitar in the corner. "It's still weird when I come home from a day out or whatever and everything is different."

"He doesn't ask you if you're okay with it?" Eden ran her hand along the counter next to the kitchen sink.

"He doesn't give away my stuff. Most of it is still in Genoa City with my mom, anyway."

"That's not what I asked." Eden looked over to Noah and then quickly looked away. "Oh my god, I didn't come here for this. Sorry."

"Why are you here, Eden? How did you even know where here was?" Noah clasped his hands behind his back, then kicked the door shut and leaned against it.

She looked back to Noah and tried to smile. It wasn't convincing. "I work for Bill Spencer. He's married to RJ's aunt. It wasn't hard to find this place. And I... I wanted to talk to you about the other day at Spencer. Is RJ here?"

"Does it look like he is?" Noah pulled one arm out from behind his back and swept it across the loft.

"Sorry. Stupid question." Eden cast her eyes to the floor and Noah immediately wanted to apologize for being sarcastic. He didn't. "There was a reason I didn't tell you I was in town: you or RJ. I didn't want to be an issue for you guys."

Noah didn't patronize her by asking how she would be a problem. He knew. She knew. Hell, even RJ knew.

"What did he say when you told him I was here? Was he mad?" Eden bit her lip and looked at the microwave. She had never... She wasn't this soft before. When they were together, Noah loved how she was afraid of nothing. Eden Baldwin would call a bitch a bitch, and then threaten to cut said bitch. She had changed since he last saw her. But, then again, so had he.

"He doesn't know." Noah balled the hem of his shirt in his hands and absentmindedly pulled on it. "I didn't tell him."

"Why not?" Eden looked at Noah and, even though there was concern on her face, she couldn't hide the hope in her eyes.

He wanted to tell her it was to avoid a fight because of how jealous and possessive RJ could get, or because he was still in love with her and RJ knew it and he couldn't bear to see the heartbroken look on his boyfriend's face when he found out. Noah had a million half-truths at his fingertips that he could spin into plausible tales, but instead he shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know. Amber knows. She told me I should tell him, and she's right, but he always comes home tired and it's just not something I can spring on him."

"Why can't you, Noah? Why can't you just tell your boyfriend and one of my oldest friends that I'm in town? It's not like I came here to get you back. I have a job, a job that tens of thousands of college students would kill for. Bill Spencer picked me at random for an amazing opportunity. I would be here whether you were in LA or Genoa City or Paris." Eden's features grew hard and she looked into his eyes. He shivered but didn't look away. "Do you still love me?"

"That isn't fair," he protested, breaking the eye contact and looking at his shoes. His left one had come untied.

"That isn't an answer, Noah."

He looked up and focused on a patch of wall just beyond her shoulder. "I'm happy, Eden. I'm playing music again and my friend Liam just got me an internship at Spencer. I'm living with RJ and we share a bed."

"The other day, you raced to Spencer just to see if I was there because you thought you heard my name. You took an internship at the same place as me, even though you know I'm there. And you can't even answer a simple yes or no question. I didn't come into your life, Noah. You came back into mine and I'm just here trying to understand what it means."

"It means I need for you to leave, Eden." Noah turned and opened the door. He continued speaking, but kept his back to his ex. “You can't... You can stay in Los Angeles. You can stay at Spencer. You just can't come to my home and ask me if I still love you."

"And you can't even lie and tell me that you don't." Eden walked out of the apartment. When she was in the hall, she looked to Noah. "This isn't fair, Noah. Not to me and not to RJ."

And Noah didn't care. He released the door and took the few steps to Eden. He put his hands on either side of her face and he kissed her. At first, she was shocked, but then she joined him. Her scent was familiar but different. Her taste tingled at the back of his mind but it wasn't what he remembered. She had changed and he had changed and he kept kissing her anyway.

"You should stop," Eden warned Noah. Both of her hands were on his chest and she pushed him away. "RJ could step off that elevator at any minute. Is this what you want him to see? And why did you kiss me? Why would you do that?"

Scared out of his mind, Noah walked backwards into the loft and slammed the door in Eden's face.

B&B

"It's going perfectly," the woman pretending to be Eden told her visitor. "He thinks I'm her. He kissed me of his own volition."

"Good. That means it's time for me to step up my end of things. Bill Spencer doesn't know about me?"

"Not a clue. Does that bitch Taylor Hayes know who you are?" She opened the hotel room's mini fridge and pulled out two beers. The woman offered one to her coconspirator but he declined.

"She doesn't even know my alias, 'Eden'. And I'm fairly certain I've scared her into shutting her damn mouth."

The woman sat one bottle on her bed and twisted the other open. "That's good. But why are you in on this? What does Victor Newman have over you?"

The man who claimed to be "Thad Pasado" rose to his feet and touched the woman's face with the back of his hand. "You are an expensive imitation of Eden Baldwin, and that may be enough for that idiot Noah Newman, but the old man promised me the real thing if we pull this off."

"Eden" smashed her bottle of beer against the wall and held the jagged remainder to "Thad's" throat. "Don't you talk about him like that. I will kill you. Victor needs me, but you're redundant. Never forget that you're Plan B."

He grabbed her wrist and twisted it until she dropped the bottle, then he threw her onto the bed and laughed. "Do you know how often Plan A fails? There's a reason there's always a backup."

"Then why don't you show me?" The woman laughed and shrugged off her jacket. "It's okay, 'Thad'. I know you aren't really gay. I know everything about you."

Leaning onto the bed and into her body, "Thad" whispered into the woman's ear. "You wouldn't be a very good officer if you didn't do a background check."

Then he pulled away and watched as the colour drained from her face. "Unlike your precious Noah, I don't care for bootlegs. Have a good evening, my dear Courtney."


	5. Chapter 5

"They invited you, too?" Brooke asked when she saw Bill and Katie waiting in front of the elevator. "Why?"

"Why not? I own half of Spencer, my wife is the president, and my son is the CEO. Of course I'm going to be invited," Bill boasted. He put an arm around Katie's shoulder and Brooke's heart twinged. She faked a smile.

"RJ invited me. He stopped out yesterday and insisted on it. You know we used to be really close." Katie's explanation was very carefully worded. It didn't make it sting any less.

"Where's Will?" Brooke asked, noticing that neither Bill nor Katie was holding their son.

"Donna has him. RJ wanted us to bring him, but he has a cold."

Brooke nodded and didn't say anything else. She hadn't expected RJ to invite them. She supposed she didn't know who would be on the invite list. It was a safe bet, though, that Ridge and Caroline were not. Her son hadn't spoken to his father in months and Brooke had long since given up trying to convince RJ that he should.

The elevator opened and all three stepped into it. It was the most uncomfortable ride in an elevator that Brooke had taken in a long time.

B&B

"I love it." Rick grinned and leaned back in his seat. "It is brilliant, Maya. Lesser scandals have ruined bigger careers. I always thought Caroline and Ridge were just stuck up classists until Layla joined the company."

"Classism? Really?" Layla looked at Maya and the other woman nodded.

"They were careful not to use any openly racist language. It was all very coded. Ghetto. Urban. You know what I'm talking about. And I didn't want them to accuse me of playing the race card. Racists always love doing that."

"I wish I'd realized it sooner." The remorse in Rick's voice pulled at Maya's heart. "I don't condone it. At all. But Ridge and his daughter are shareholders. I can't force him out of the company."

"But we can shame him into leaving it," Layla finished.

"And Steffy hates Caroline," Maya added. "If we get rid of Ridge, that bitch has no protection. Bill only owns twelve percent of Forrester. He can't protect her ass."

Maya watched as Rick looked at the photo of his father on his desk. "It could taint the Forrester name forever, though. My dad spent his entire life making it mean something."

"And we're doing this to make sure his name will always mean something," Layla assured Rick. "I've already... I contacted the only person I know of who hates Ridge more than us."

"Nick Marone?"

Maya slapped the back of Rick's head and Layla laughed.

"No, Rick. I got Layla into a meeting with RJ."

"He thought he was stealth recruiting me," Layla explained as she crossed her legs. "When he found out why I was really at L&M, he got excited."

"He's already agreed to co-release a statement with me absolving Forrester itself of harbouring a hostile working environment and blaming everything squarely on Ridge on Caroline abusing their authority." Maya kissed Rick's temple and smiled at Layla. "After all, your dad was the one who adopted that idiot Marcus and hired Carter. Eric's a compassionate, accepting man. This is all about Ridge and Caroline."

"We'll minimize the damage to the Forrester brand itself. We just need to make sure nobody else finds out about this until after it’s done. Especially Carter's old Uncle Tom ass," Layla told Rick while Maya nodded in agreement. "After all, he is the black best friend they're going to try to use as a shield."

"I am so glad you two came up with this," Rick said with a weary sigh. "Things are going to get really ugly if we pull this off."

"But not as ugly as Ridge," Maya laughed, leaning across the desk to give Layla a high five.

B&B

"Welcome to our home!" RJ greeted dramatically after he opened the door. He held his arms out to his side and spun out of his guests’ way.

"He's been practicing that ever since I got here," Liam told everyone from the sofa.

RJ groaned and hit him with an accent pillow.

"It's a classic line, you ass."

"Thanks for coming out," Noah told everyone with a smile. "I didn't expect it to be this big a thing."

"It should be a bigger thing!" Bill exclaimed as he walked into the loft. He balked when he saw that the bed and the dining table shared the same floor space as the kitchen and the living room. "This apartment should be bigger, too."

"It's a loft, Bill," RJ explained. He spoke slowly, as though Bill were an idiot. "It's a deliberate design choice to have everything in one spot."

"It's a poor design for poor people. A real home has walls."

"Shut up, Bill." Katie put her hand over his mouth and apologized to RJ and Noah. "Sorry about him. He's just being Bill. Your loft is lovely."

"Thank you, Aunt Katie!" RJ thrust his hands into the air and looked at Noah. "And you said we should do this at my mom's."

"Your mom agreed with me, but whatever." Noah nodded to Bill and smiled. "I'm really looking forward to starting at your company tomorrow."

Bill pulled Katie's hand away and laughed. "As you should. It's a huge opportunity for anyone. I normally don't hire people who don't have college degrees."

"He's an intern, Dad," Liam called from the couch. RJ noticed that Brooke was sitting with him and being quiet. "You're not paying him."

"All the more reason to celebrate!" Bill boasted before looking down at RJ. "Where is the food? And the whiskey?"

Again, RJ regarded Bill as if he were an idiot. "The food is on its way. I didn't want it delivered early and have it growing cold. And why would I have whiskey?"

"What kind of man doesn't have whiskey? Even Liam does! Though, his is practically coloured water." Noah snorted and Liam objected, but Bill ignored them. "Then I'll have the scotch."

"I don't have scotch," RJ just kind of stared at Bill. "I don't have wine, either. Bill, I'm 20. Nobody would sell me alcohol because it is illegal. Do you know what that means?"

"It means your boyfriend over there can run to the liquor store and buy something. Noel, you're over 21, right?” Bill reached into his back pocket and produced his wallet. “Here’s my credit card. Go buy a bottle of the most expensive whiskey they have."

"It's Noah," he corrected quietly, scratching the back of his head and looking at RJ.

Katie interrupted again. "Bill, you can go dry for one night. Don't you go anywhere, Noah. We're both really appreciative of everything you two gentlemen did for us tonight. Don't we?"

"I'd appreciate whiskey more."

RJ sighed, rolled his eyes, and walked away from the conversation and to the nearest mirror. He adjusted his tie and cursed himself for wearing a clip-on. It was stupid that he worked in fashion and couldn't tie one, but it was stupider that Noah couldn't do it, either. At least his hair looked good.

"How are things at L&M?" Katie asked Brooke, joining her sister and son-in-law on the sofa.

"Just fine," Brooke answered simply. "Things have settled down and we're out of crisis mode. Now it's all about getting back on track. Sales are still well beyond our initial estimates, even with the craziness."

RJ's eyes glazed over; whenever his mom started discussing numbers he checked out of the conversation. And Bill was discussing sports or something with Noah, which was equally boring, so RJ started setting the table even though the food still hadn't arrived.

"I'm surprised Amber isn't here." Liam took the plates from RJ's hands and looked over to Brooke and Katie. Clearly, he had also been bored by shop talk.

"I invited her. She was friends with Noah long before she and I got close, but she declined when I said you would be here. I guess things are still... Is 'tense' a good word to use?" RJ started grabbing cups and shrugged. "It's so dumb. Who hasn't faked the paternity of their kid?"

"I'm standing right here," Liam pointed out, setting the plates on the table. "Silverware is still in the second drawer, right?"

"Yeah. And I know you're here. It's why I said it. I mean, in the long list of dumb things Amber has done, you have to admit that trying to pass off a black baby as yours is the most hilarious."

"It's really not."

RJ rolled his eyes and grunted. "Whatever. The point is, she's not here and you are. And I appreciate you giving Noah this internship, but I would appreciate it even more if you just got over Amber lying about Rosie like you got over Steffy and Bill trapping Hope on that gondola in Aspen."

"You always know just the most inappropriate thing to say." Liam marveled at RJ. For his part, RJ snorted.

"What can I say? It's a gift." RJ kicked up his right leg and spun on his left foot. When he came to a stop, he began wobbling to the table and set the glasses down, then returned to cupboard to get a couple more.

"I like this Noah kid," Bill interrupted, slipping up behind Liam and throwing his arm over his son's shoulder to clap a hand on his chest. "RJ, how much do you want for him?"

"I'm not selling you my boyfriend. And aren't you straight?" RJ again just stood and stared at Bill.

Bill laughed and looked at Noah, who was decidedly not looking back at him. "Not for me. For Caroline. Liam, don't you think he'd be great with your cousin?"

"Dad, Caroline is with Ridge. Nobody likes it, but it is what it is. And Noah is with RJ. The exact same way you're with Katie."

"It was a joke. God. You people are why I drink."

Bill wandered away and Liam looked at RJ. They both started laughing.

"Can you finish this?" RJ asked Liam, pointing at the table. He had noticed Noah was standing by himself. "I think my man is feeling neglected."

"Go. I spend more time here than I do at my own house these days. I think I remember where everything is."

Nodding, RJ skipped away and then jumped onto Noah's back. He bit gently on his boyfriend's ear and Noah shrugged him off with a laugh.

"Kiss me," RJ ordered, clasping his hands together and looking up to Noah with his best puppy dog eyes.

"Here? Now? Why?"

"Here. Now. And because I said so. How's that work for ya?" RJ stood on the tips of his toes and Noah obliged. "See, now you're the center of attention."

And, indeed, everyone was looking at them and smiling, except for Bill who was typing on his phone.

"You guys can go back to whatever you were doing," Noah said awkwardly, raising his hand to the room and waving. RJ grabbed said hand and held it.

"Hey, RJ," Bill said, looking up. "I just got a text from one of my interns. She has paperwork for me and I gave her your address to drop it off. So if there's a knock at your door and it's not the food, then it's her."

RJ nodded, not really caring, but Noah pulled his hand away and stared at his own fingers. It was weird, but RJ shrugged and walked away. He'd already done his supportive boyfriend thing. Besides, it was obvious Noah wasn't quite comfortable with PDA in a roomful of straight people. They could talk about that after everyone left.

The door knocked and, before RJ could open it, Noah had bound over and thrown it open. He seemed relieved to see that it was the food. After paying for it, Noah turned around and noticed that everyone was looking at him in bewilderment, though RJ noticed Bill was smirking.

"What? You guys aren't hungry?" Noah walked over to the table and everyone joined him. Brooke was the last to take her seat, nervously sitting beside Liam and across from Bill.

RJ wished things had worked out between Bill and Brooke. While he didn't really care for Bill Spencer, the man had been good to his mother. He was definitely better for her than RJ’s father.

"What is this?" Bill pointed his fork at the tupperware container nestled between the take out.

"I brought fried tofu!" Liam exclaimed cheerfully.

"I'll pass," Noah and Bill said at the same time. Even though he agreed with the sentiment, RJ rolled his eyes and said nothing. Bill grinned at Noah and Noah looked at the ceiling.

"Whatever. More for me." Liam spooned a healthy portion onto his plate and offered some to the women. Brooke accepted and Katie politely declined. RJ just looked at Liam like he was insane. "You guys are missing out."

"We're really not," Noah argued, Bill nodding in agreement. Then he looked at Bill and scooted his seat away, which was difficult since he was at one end of the table and RJ the other: there wasn't a lot of room to move.

Everyone started digging into what Bill kept calling the "real food" and were well into the meal when there was another knock at the door. Noah's face went pale, but he still left the table to answer the door. Suspicious, RJ stood and followed. His boyfriend had been acting weird ever since Bill and Katie arrived.

"Eden!" RJ yelled after Noah opened the door. He pushed the other man out of his way and practically tackled his old friend. She gave him an awkward pat on the back and he pulled away. "When did you get in town?"

"Last week. I... I'm interning at Spencer Publications. Noah didn't tell you?"

Then the air left the room. RJ stepped back, out of Eden's reach, and looked at Noah who most decidedly was not looking at him. He looked to everyone else in the loft, who were watching him like hawks.

"You have something for Bill?" RJ asked calmly, turning his attention to the manila envelope in Eden's hands.

"Yeah. I think they're contracts."

RJ snatched the envelope from Eden and roughly threw it at Noah. "Surely, you can tell Bill that Eden is here. Just like you told me."

"RJ..." Brooke started to rise from her seat, but Liam grabbed her arm and shook his head.

"I didn't know how to tell you." Noah knelt to the floor and retrieved the envelope, but still looked at nobody. "I... I just..."

"Thanks for dropping these off, Eden. It was good to see you. We'll make sure Bill gets the contracts. And believe me when I say I'm not mad at you." RJ slammed the door in her face and Noah flinched. After several seconds of staring at his boyfriend who refused to make eye contact, RJ threw his hands into the air and screamed, then stomped to the bathroom and slammed that door, too.

Noah just stood apart from everyone else, hands shaking so hard that the sound of paper rattling could be heard in the otherwise silent loft. Brooke, Katie, and Liam all looked at each other and then to Noah. Bill's eyes were fixed on the bathroom door, but they slowly slid to Noah as well.

"Well? Can I see my contracts?" Bill asked. The other guests turned and stared at him. He crossed his arms over his chest defensively. "What?"


	6. Chapter 6

"How goes your first day?" Liam asked. He offered Noah some of his steamed arugula, but his friend declined and opened the bag of potato chips he had brought instead.

"Everyone is pretty cool. Fairly laid back. All those positive adjectives." Noah pulled a chip out and looked at it. "They all know I'm friends with you, though. Everyone in the whole damn building knows."

"Well, you are spending your lunch break in my office."

"And how the hell do I get an hour long lunch break for a five hour shift? That means I'm only working four hours." Noah shrugged and popped the chip in his mouth.

Liam grinned looked at his computer screen. "There are perks to being friends with the CEO. Just don't abuse them, okay? You still have to show up and do everything that Jenna asks of you."

"Yes Sir!" Noah saluted Liam and reached back into the bag.

"Also, Noah, about last night..."

With a groan, Noah set his chips on the floor and wiped his hand on his pants. "Are you going to lecture me about not telling RJ that my ex was in town? Because Amber already did, and I had a screaming match with RJ last night after everyone left. He made me sleep on the sofa."

"I'm not going to lecture you. I didn't know you knew Eden was here, but I knew."

Noah's eyebrows went up in surprise. "How did you know about Eden? RJ and Amber are the only people in the town who knew who she was. Well, besides me. Obviously."

"Obviously," Liam agreed. He swirled his arugula around with his fork, but didn't eat any. "My dad introduced me to Eden days ago, well before last night. She's supposed to be an intern, but he's treating her like a pack mule. Anyway, I looked her up out of curiosity. She still has a Myspace page, and you're all over it. RJ, too. And I never told you the same way you never told RJ."

"No offence, but how does that help me, Liam? RJ is pissed and doing that not talking to me thing he does whenever he gets mad. At least he isn't leaving the country or hiding at his mom's this time. That's progress."

"Yeah, well, things will calm down and you guys can talk about it and work things through. I mean, you didn't tell him your ex was in town because you didn't know how. We all have secrets like that." Liam's mind flashed to Brooke. "You just kept it to yourself to spare his feelings. I get it. He'll figure it out eventually."

Noah looked off to the side and took a deep breath. It made Liam nervous.

"What is it?"

"I didn't just know Eden was in town." Noah kept looking at the wall. "Can you keep a secret?"

Again, Liam thought of Brooke. "I think so, yeah."

"I didn't just know Eden was back in town. I came here and saw here."

"By here, you mean Spencer?" Liam asked.

Noah nodded. He gave a small, brief smile that Liam saw in profile. "When you and I were chatting the other day and I heard your dad say her name... It brought back a lot of feelings I thought I had gotten over. I had to know if it was her. And when I came here, it was."

"Why is this a secret, Noah? Everyone kinda already knows you knew Eden was here, albeit we didn't know HOW you knew."

"Because that's not the secret, Liam. I talked to Amber about Eden being back, and she told me that I should have told RJ. She was right. But I didn't tell RJ she was back and, after my talk with Amber, I saw Eden again.

"She found the loft and stopped by and we talked. She asked me if I still loved her, and I told her I'm with RJ."

"That's not an answer.”

“She said that, too.” Noah finally looked at Liam. He was sad.

“Do you still love her? Eden, I mean."

"Do you still love Hope?" Noah asked.

There was nothing Liam could say. He was with Brooke, even though they were hiding it. He was happy with her and he was pretty sure he loved her. But every time he saw a picture of Hope, his heart still stopped.

"That's what I thought." Noah's response to Liam's silence cut deep. "I told her to leave. I told her I'm happy with RJ and she could stay here at Spencer: I just couldn't see her or talk to her anymore. But..."

Liam waited a few seconds before asking. "But what?"

Noah's eyes were misty and he licked his lips before answering. "But I kissed her, Liam. And it wasn't a kiss goodbye. I'm an asshole for it. I know that. And I do love RJ, but Eden was the one that got away.

"We had made peace with our past. Or so I thought. There was no way Eden and I would ever be able to be anything again. Except, now, I don't know."

"What are you saying, Noah?"

"If you were back with RJ's sister Steffy, or still with that bitch Ivy, or had someone new that you really cared about, and Hope showed up on your doorstep asking if you still loved her, what would you do? What would you say to that, Liam?"

Closing his eyes, Liam took a calming breath. Then he opened them and shook his head. "I don't know."

"Neither do I." Noah picked up his bag of chips and set it on Liam's desk. "I'm not hungry anymore."

B&B

"You're sure you're okay with this?" Maya asked RJ. He nodded but didn't say anything. "You know, once we start, we can't stop. Your dad and Caroline are going to be ruined."

"Good." RJ crossed his arms and reclined back into the chair. He hadn't been to the Forrester mansion in weeks. Maybe even months. RJ was never particularly close to any of his siblings except for Hope, so when Rick and his dad were fighting over Forrester he never bothered to pick a side. It was honestly a little surprising that he was involved at all in a power struggle for a company he wasn't even a part of, let alone that it was Layla and Maya who came to him.

"Rick and Layla should be here soon." Maya clearly didn't know what else to say to RJ.

He was still furious from the night before, still mad at Noah over Eden, but, after Genoa City, he had promised Noah he wouldn't run away from their problems. They would talk about Eden, probably even scream at each other again like they had the night before, but RJ wouldn't abandon Noah. He couldn’t.

They waited in silence, Maya nervous and RJ stewing in anger and directing it all to his father and his much younger whore.

"Did you hear that they found another victim of the axe murderer?" Maya asked, clearly trying to make conversation. "It's the seventh in three months, according to the news. Always attacking homeless people or network television executives."

"I don't care."

Maya sighed and pulled out her phone, so RJ did the same. He looked up Eden's Facebook page. She hadn't updated it in months. Not since just before that fucking bitch Taylor outed him and Noah. But there were comments on her page: some asking about Noah and him, or Noah and Brooke, and others asking where she'd gone. It made sense that she was avoiding everyone.

It made sense that she was avoiding RJ. He got why she didn't want him to know she was in Los Angeles. He even understood why Noah didn't want him to know. It didn't make him any less angry about it.

"Maya?" RJ closed the app on his phone and looked at her. "How did you forgive Rick after he left you for Caroline?"

"I didn't." She sat her phone down on the table and he followed suit. "You weren't in town for all of that, so you wouldn't know all the details, but I'm the one who left Rick. He's the one who forgave me. And I'm glad he did because that was the biggest mistake of my life."

"Why did you leave him?" RJ's voice was small. He felt like he was two feet tall. "If you loved my brother so much, and I can tell you do, why would you give that up?"

Maya sat for a few moments, completely silent. "I guess you can say that it's because I got scared. Why are you asking me this, RJ? You know I was Rick's mistress after he found out that Caroline was cheating on him. Did you cheat on Noah or something?"

"Hell no. I’m nothing like my slut of a father or Caroline’s whore ass. It's just that..." RJ took a deep breath and slowly let it out before continuing. "Noah's ex is in town, and he left me for her once before. It was a long time ago, but it still happened."

"And you're worried it'll happen again?" Maya asked. RJ nodded fearfully. "I left Rick for Carter because I wasn't honest with myself about what I wanted. And by the time I realized I wanted Rick, he had already married Caroline. So being honest with Noah about what you're telling me right now, forgiving any mistakes he may have made in the past, that's what you need to do if you want to keep him.

"Second chances are incredibly rare, and it sounds like you're on yours like I'm on mine. If you really want Noah, you better fight tooth and nail to keep him. But never forget that your self-respect is worth more than any man."

"Is it worth more than Rick?" RJ looked into Maya's eyes and could see there was something there. There was something she wasn’t saying.

She never answered him because Rick and Layla chose that moment to arrive. Rick looked at his brother and his fiancée, clapped his hands, and grinned. "So, are we ready to finalize this thing?"

B&B

"Eden Baldwin!" She chirped into her phone while watching the movers shuffle the last of the things into her new apartment.

"You and I both know that isn’t true, Ms. Sloan," Victor Newman laughed into the phone. "I'm calling to see how you like your new lodgings."

Courtney looked down at her floor and smiled. "I like them a lot, Lauren. The place is great. Gorgeous. The view of the Los Angeles skyline is probably going to be gorgeous at night. And my neighbours are bound to be interesting."

"Good. And how are things progressing on your end?"

Flashing back to Noah kissing her, Courtney smiled. She traced her lips and then gave her reply. "Things are going great. I may have already met someone. As soon as I'm all settled in and I'm certain his roommate isn't home, I think I'm gonna pay him a visit."

"Very well, then. Don't disappoint me." Victor hung up on her.

As soon as the loft was empty, Courtney sat on her bed and laughed. "Oh, Victor, when all is said and done, the only person who will be left disappointed is that insufferable brat RJ."

B&B

"Are you going to leave me?" RJ didn't want to fight, but, when he walked into the loft and saw Noah on the PlayStation, it was the only thing he could think to say.

"Why would I leave you?" Noah paused his game and put the controller on the table. Concern was written across his face.

"That's not a no." RJ slung his bag on the floor and sat next to Noah, leaning into him and holding onto his arm. "I want you to stay here. Stay with me. Eden's in LA and I know she's the love of your life, but you're the love of mine. I didn't fly to a third world country and get on my knees in front of your grandfather just to have you walk away."

"I'm right here, RJ." Noah pulled out of RJ’s grasp and slid his arm around RJ's shoulder. He kissed his temple. "I want to be here. If I didn't, I wouldn't have kept Eden from you. I would have just left like I did before. But..."

"But what?" RJ croaked. He remembered what Maya said about forgiving Noah's mistakes and balled his hands into fists, his manicured nails biting into his palms. All the anger, all the indignation, it was replaced with cold fear.

"Eden was here the other day. Before last night, I mean. We talked. We did more than talk." Noah swallowed and RJ stopped breathing. "I know you're going to be mad, RJ. You're going to say a lot of things to me that I deserve. All I can say is that I'm sorry."

"You slept with her." RJ wasn't asking. He wasn't even yelling. He just removed himself from Noah's warm embrace and stood on unsteady feet. Sitting there, face wracked with guilt, Noah looked as small as RJ felt. "You slept with her in the same bed that you and I share."

When Noah shook his head, RJ almost collapsed from the relief.

"I didn't sleep with her, RJ. I wouldn't, especially not here... But I did kiss her."

"You mean she kissed you and you were so surprised that you didn’t pull away?" RJ could barely hear himself. His voice did nothing but tremble and croak. "That's what happened. Right?"

Noah used his right hand to grab his left arm. He cast his eyes to the floor at first, but then looked up into RJ's. He looked terrified: RJ was familiar with the feeling.

"She was leaving. She was walking out the door and out of my life. But... All I could see was her walking out on me again, just like she did in Paris."

"Just like you did to me in Paris!" RJ shouted, the venom in his voice doing nothing to mask the hurt.

"It makes no sense. I know that!" Noah yelled back. He immediately looked as if he regretted it and folded his hands in his lap. "I'm so sorry, RJ."

"I forgive you." RJ didn't feel it as he said it. All he felt was fear and rage and hurt, but he was certain that, after those feelings subsided, he would mean the words that he had said.

"You do?" Noah almost smiled and that just pissed RJ off even more.

Focusing on what Maya had told him, RJ repeated himself. "I forgive you."

Noah jumped off the couch and kissed RJ, who returned it out of habit; he wondered if Noah had kissed Eden the exact same way. And as his boyfriend hugged him, thanked him, and assured RJ that he loved him, RJ began focusing his rage onto his father and Caroline. He wouldn't lose Noah, he couldn't, but he could sure as hell make those two pay for everything they did.


	7. Chapter 7

"It's an olive branch," RJ lied, handing his dad the snow globe. Caroline was also there, because of course Caroline was there. Just seeing the two of them in the same room made him sick. "Some things have happened recently that made me realize I've been a selfish brat. I'm glad you two are happy. I shouldn't have been such a little bitch when you proposed to Caroline. I'm sorry, Dad. I'm sorry, Caroline."

While RJ had never been the best actor, he was relieved to see that Ridge and Caroline were stupid enough to fall for it.

"Thank you for the apology, Son." Ridge took the snow globe and looked it over, a big smile on his face. "It's the Eiffel Tower."

"A reminder of when we lived in Paris together: me, you, and Steffy. We were happy then, and I want to give it another try. I hope you guys can accept my apology. Especially you, Caroline. I was horrible to you and I barely even know you. I want to make up for that somehow. What can I do?"

"This is enough." Caroline was smiling through her tears and hugged RJ. He gingerly hugged her back and did his best to maintain his fraudulent smile. "I accept your apology, RJ. You were shocked and hurt. It makes sense that you lashed out, but I respect you for apologizing for it."

"Don't make excuses for me," RJ insisted as he fought the urge to push Caroline away and vomit in her face. She pulled away on her own but kept holding RJ's hands. It only hardened his resolve to pull the deception off.

These two were just talking to him, accepting him, but he wasn't the only one who had gone months without contact. Neither one made overtures of forgiveness towards RJ. They were too busy making Layla's work life hell. It just pissed RJ off even more. Everything about his dad and Caroline pissed RJ off.

"I know you're at L&M now, RJ, but you can still come here to Forrester any time you want. You're my son and you are a Forrester, even if you did change your name to Logan." Ridge smiled and RJ wanted to stab him in the eye with a drawing pencil. Remembering that it was a fake reconciliation wasn't hard.

"I promise I won't be an industrial spy when I do." RJ pulled away from Caroline and held his right hand in the air with his fingers crossed. Everyone in the room laughed. Ridge sat the snow globe on his desk and RJ locked his eyes onto it. "If I do come out here, I need to ask you to make me a promise. I know I have no right to ask for one, not after the way I behaved..."

"Just tell me what it is, Son." Ridge clapped his hand on RJ's shoulder. All RJ wanted to do was shrug it off.

"Just... Can you keep that right there? So that I can remember that you loved me enough to forgive me, even after the horrible things I did and said?"

Ridge nodded. "For you, Son? I'll have it glued to my desk. I love you."

"Same to you," RJ returned, deciding he deserved the Oscar more than the Golden Globe for his performance.

Ridge hugged his son, and an excited Caroline joined them. RJ just stood between them and wished for nuclear oblivion.

B&B

"That was RJ," Rick told Layla after his call was finished. He was ecstatic and so was she. "The bug has been planted. They bought everything. Ridge and Caroline have no idea what's about to go down."

"Just remember, you don't come into their office until you hear someone yelling." Layla sat her drawing pad and pencil down, then cracked her knuckles. "This is your last chance to call it off."

"If we don't do this Layla, they'll never stop. They'll just get worse and worse," Rick reminded her, even though it wasn't necessary.

"You say that like you're the one that has to deal with them." She screwed up her courage and brushed invisible dirt from her shoulders. "Okay then, let's do this. Let's save this company from those two."

B&B

"Hold the elevator!" Noah yelled, his arms full of printed off page view stats and the like. Jenna, his editor, had tasked him with delivering them to Liam. Most of Noah's duties seemed to involve delivering things or scrubbing comment sections of offensive material.

A woman's hand reached out and triggered the motion detector, keeping the doors open just long enough for Noah to slide in through them. When he saw who the woman was, he dropped everything he was holding.

"Eden," he said quietly as the elevator doors closed behind him.

"You dropped your paperwork," she pointed out, looking right at Noah. He couldn't tear his eyes away from her. His brain reminded him that he had promised RJ that whatever was happening with Eden was over, but his heart told him otherwise.

Noah closed his eyes and stood as still as possible, trying not to notice how much her scent had changed. She never wore perfume before. Now it was all he noticed.

The sound of paper rustling caught Noah's attention. He turned his head and dared to look. Eden was on her hands and knees, gathering everything up for him. He stepped as far away from her as he could. It was a good thing nobody else was in the elevator. Security must have been wondering what was wrong with him as they watched the camera.

"They aren't in order. Sorry." Eden stood up and held the papers out for Noah. He stared at them, fear running through his veins like ice. His hand trembled as he reached out and took the papers. As soon as they were in his possession, Eden reached around Noah and hit a button. The elevator stopped.

"What are you doing?" Noah croaked nervously. She was so close. He inhaled her perfume and shuddered.

"We need to talk. This won't work, Noah." Eden pulled away and crossed her arms. She stared him down: her face didn't show anger, just disappointment. "You can't work here, the same building where I work, and freeze up every time you see me. You chose RJ. That's fine. I didn't come here for you. All I want is to finish my internship and get my degree and get a writing gig at one of these magazines."

"I'm sorry," was all he could say. "I knew you were interning here, just like me, but I didn't think... I didn't think."

"You never think, Noah." Eden sighed and pressed her palm to her forehead. "You always do something stupid and expect everyone else to clean up your mess. And this time, I'm your mess. Me and RJ. You kissed me, then slammed the door in my face!"

"I'm sorry," he repeated.

Eden tucked her hair behind her ears. "Yeah, Noah. You are. But so am I. Because I moved on with my life and then you made me fall back in love with you with one kiss."

For the second time, Noah dropped his papers. Neither person moved to pick them up.

"Imagine how I felt, Noah. All those years in Paris, you and me and RJ, and I had no idea you would... You and RJ? I've tried to understand and I can't. You never told me that you were bisexual. Not before I left Paris, and not after you left RJ. You made him your dirty little secret, and then you tried doing the same thing to me."

"Never," Noah insisted, finding his voice. "You were never that. I don't know why I didn't tell RJ you were in LA. I think I was scared, but I'm not sure why. I just don't know!"

"You never answered me when I asked you if you still love me." Eden walked up to Noah, standing atop his papers for Liam. He didn't care. She put her hand over his heart and looked into his eyes. "It's racing. You never answered me because you were afraid of what the answer would be. You do, don't you? You still love me just like I still love you."

"But RJ..." Noah protested before Eden kissed him. His resistance melted and he kissed her back. She slammed him into the wall of the elevator and he welcomed the aggression.

They broke apart to breathe and Noah began to return to his senses. He pushed Eden away.

"I can't, Eden. I can't." Noah thought of his boyfriend, of the look on RJ's face when he asked if Noah would leave him. "I'm with RJ. I love him."

"Do you love him like you love me? Do you stop in your tracks at the mere mention of his name? Would you fly across the world for him like you did for me?"

"I did." Noah wiped his mouth and looked at Eden. The ice in his veins had become a fire in his stomach. And, as much as he wished otherwise, Noah knew it wasn't burning for RJ. "After I slept with his mom, I flew to Paris because I knew that's where RJ would go to get away from me."

"And did you tell him you loved him in Paris, Noah? Did you beg him to forgive you and take you back?"

And Noah knew he hadn't. When he followed RJ to Paris, he hadn't planned on a reconciliation. He hadn't planned much of anything. He didn't even consider getting back together with RJ until they stood on that bridge as the rain fell: until RJ told Noah that he still loved him.

Now Eden, the woman Noah had never been able to get over, she was telling Noah that she was still in love with him. And he kissed her, even after seeing how much pain it had caused RJ.

"I'm shit. Why do you even want me? If I can do this with you, what makes you think I won't do it to you?" Noah slid to the floor, back against the wall and hands on his knees. "Do you really want me to leave RJ? For you? Because I did that already, three years ago, for a chance with you. A chance! And we agreed that it was a disaster."

"I didn't know about RJ then." Eden crouched down beside Noah and caressed his face with one hand, laying the other atop one of Noah's. He didn't pull away. "RJ survived it the last time. He'll do it again. He's older now, we’re all older now. RJ’s not a kid you need to protect. He has his own fashion company and he's here in LA surrounded by his friends and family. They can take care of him."

"God, I love you." All Noah wanted to do was kiss Eden again. He wanted to inhale her scent and taste her tongue and explore her body with his hands. "But I can't. I won't. I'm sorry, Eden. I love you more than I could ever possibly love anyone else, but I'm not leaving RJ."

The expression on Eden's face changed to one of disbelief, then anger. "You had better remember what you said today, Noah Newman. You just remember."

She released the lock on the elevator. He was still picking his papers up when she got off at the next floor.

B&B

"He actually talks to you like that?" RJ stared at Layla.

She nodded and looked away. When it was in the heat of the moment and she could fight back, the digs didn't bother her as much. Layla had a pretty thick skin and she was proud of it. Things were different, though, hearing the vile words spewing out of Ridge and Caroline's mouths after the fact. Listening to the things they said in front of people hearing them for the first time… It was so much worse than she actually believed.

"Now you know why they need to go," Maya answered for Layla. She closed the audio app on the tablet and opened an email one in its place. "We have a burner email account all set up and ready to send it to whom ever."

"Just not any publication affiliated with Spencer. Bill would get this shut down before we got any traction," Rick said, hands on Maya's shoulders.

"I am so sorry," RJ told Layla. The kid was clearly still in shock.

Layla reached over and patted his cheek. She didn't know why she was comforting him, not when she had been the one abused by Ridge and Caroline. Maybe it was the way the hateful fire in RJ's eyes died out when he heard the recording.

"All you did was walk in the door and say hello, and Caroline..." RJ continued before Layla hushed him.

"It's okay. You didn't know. Nobody did, not really. That's the point." Layla smiled through her anxiety and pulled at the neckline of her top, giving her breasts some air with which to breathe. The entire room was suddenly stifling. "RJ, do you want to stop this?"

He shook his head. "No. This isn't about me. It's about you. You and Maya. And after what those two assholes said, they need to go. I'm so sorry."

"You don't have to say it anymore." Layla turned away from RJ and nodded to Rick and Maya. "Go ahead. Do it. Let's bring holy hell down on those two."


	8. Chapter 8

"You actually told Layla that she needed to stop doing her designs on the back of her WIC coupons?"

"Don't look at me like that, Liam. So I made some off colour remarks. Everyone is acting like I'm the Grand Duchess of the KKK."

"It's 'Grand Wizard', not 'Grand Duchess', and you told a black woman to stop bleaching her teeth and start bleaching her skin, Caroline. You don’t see how that could be considered racist?"

"Ridge is the one who said that! Didn't you listen to the tape?" Caroline scoffed before dramatically throwing herself onto his sofa. She couldn't go to work, not after waking up to her and Ridge all over the internet with white hoods photoshopped on top of their heads. "And why is everyone calling me racist? I'm not racist! If I were racist, would I be friends with Carter? Rafael? Layla is just an uppity bitch, Liam. I mean, sometimes I get snarky, but I'd never call her the N-word."

"Listen, I have to go to work. Spencer Publications needs to figure out how to show we don't condone the horrible, HORRIBLE things you and Ridge told that woman. I'm going to do my best to not throw you under the bus, but I can't make any promises."

"Just go. Abandon me like I'm one of your ex-wives. Uncle Bill is on his way over here anyway." Caroline sighed loudly and closed her eyes, pressing the back of her hand to her forehead.

When she heard the front door shutting, Caroline quickly sat up. Liam had actually left her!

Hopefully, Ridge was having better luck with his family. Unlike Caroline, he actually was going to the office, but he had mentioned something about stopping by RJ's loft first.

B&B

"We already released our statement. It's on the Forrester Creations website and all related social media accounts. We have no further comment at this time," Rick told what felt like the 80th reporter of the morning. After hanging up, he looked to Layla and laughed.

No work was getting done. Stock prices had begun to slip, but they weren't in freefall. Layla was doing even more damage control than he was: setting up future interviews but giving no actual comments.

"I appreciate this more than you know," Rick told Layla when they both had a break from the unending phone calls. "After the stuff with Ivy, I thought Forrester was officially out of scandals."

"That was more of L&M's problem anyway. She was the widow of that company's cofounder," Layla reminded Rick, her phone vibrating with a text message. "You just had to deal with the fact that her last name was Forrester."

"Thank god she was just the cousin nobody cared about," Rick agreed. Then the conversation ended as the phones began ringing again.

B&B

"You have ten minutes. I'm already late for work." RJ wasn't surprised to see his father had found his loft, especially not when he saw that Taylor was with him.

"Is Noah here?" Taylor asked as she and Ridge entered. She glanced at the wall and rubbed her neck. "I see you got that fixed."

"Shut the fuck up, Taylor. The only reason you're even in my loft is because you came with him." RJ glared at his father with all the hate he could muster. "Why are you here and why did you bring her? Or did you forget that she outed me to the entire world?"

"RJ, I've already apolo..."

Stomping his foot, RJ shut her down with a look. "Bitch, I told you to shut your goddamn mouth! Or do you wanna see my impression of Noah's mom?"

"RJ! Watch your language! I get that you're upset with and Taylor, but you need to listen to my side of the story. I was set up!"

"I know, Dad. I'm the one who did it." After listening to the tape, after the emails had been sent and the audio files uploaded, RJ had volunteered to be the fall guy. He didn't want to see Rick, Maya, or Layla get thrown under the bus over by his father. And, frankly, he wanted this confrontation. "You really thought I was sincere yesterday? You're as stupid as you are ugly.

"I work with Maya. I overheard her talking about the horrible things you and Caroline would say to her when she was still at Forrester, and now the whole world knows the equally awful things you say to that Layla woman."

The hurt and betrayal on Ridge's face made RJ laugh. It was cold and hateful and he wondered if his cruel streak came from his father. At least he got his looks from his mom's side of the family.

Ridge looked to Taylor. She held his hands and whispered something in his hear that RJ couldn't hear, then walked out into the hallway.

"You better stay out there, CUNT!" RJ yelled at Taylor after she shut the door.

"RJ, Son." Ridge's voice sounded almost as broken as his lap band. "Where did this hate come from? What did I do for you to despise me so much you would ruin my name, your entire family's name, in the press?"

"The only person who ruined your name was you. You and your whore. I didn't edit it to make you look bad. Those were your own words. Your own hate-filled bigotry," RJ shot as he crossed his arms.

"It's because of Caroline, isn't it? Because I left Katie for her?" Ridge asked, not taking the bait RJ had thrown in his face. He was so calm. It made RJ sick. "Son, sometimes things don't work out. Part of being an adult is understanding that we make mistakes and that people need to be forgiven."

RJ flashed back to Noah telling him about kissing Eden. He remembered forgiving his boyfriend when he didn't mean it. He still didn't feel it. Every time he saw Noah, RJ got mad. It was a good thing he finally had an outlet.

"Caroline? You think I'm mad at you over that fucking slut that you stole from my brother? And don't give me that bullshit about Rick cheating on her with Maya. I don't care." RJ walked away from his father and to his bay window. He spent a few precious seconds gathering his thoughts as he watched the traffic clog the streets below. "I hate you because of you, Dad.

"I bought you that snow globe as a reminder of how horrible things were in Paris, when you and Steffy were so wrapped up in your own failed marriages and Grandmother's death that you ignored me even though I was in pain, too. Noah had left me! My grandmother was dead! And you spent the entire time talking about yourself or what was happening at International."

"I didn't know you and Noah knew each other back then," Ridge managed to say before RJ shushed him.

"No. You want to know why I'm so mad? Why I hid a bug in that snow globe and recorded you being a racist dickbag and leaked it? Then you shut your damn mouth and listen!" RJ screamed. It wasn't working. Going off on his dad wasn't making him feel better. He just kept seeing Noah kissing Eden back in Paris, when they were all kids. He saw his Aunt Katie with that stupid ribbon on her finger. RJ looked into his dad's eyes and saw the fear and concern in them. He didn't care.

He stomped away and checked his hair in the mirror while he tried to regain his composure. The silver streaks were already starting to fade and his roots were beginning to show. RJ debated if he wanted to get it touched up or just go with something new.

"Taylor outed me four months ago, and you brought her here. You brought the bitch to my home." RJ tore his eyes away from the mirror and looked at his dad. He saw a defeated, middle-aged man who was in pain. That actually made RJ feel a bit better. "And I never heard from you. After I was outed, after Taylor leaked that video of me and Noah to the world, you stood by her side. Just like you did when she ran Liam's brother down.

"And you never called to see if I was okay. To tell me that you still loved me, and that you didn't care that your son is the biggest faggot in Los Angeles."

"Don't call yourself that," Ridge pleaded. RJ held his hand up.

"I told you to shut up and listen," RJ ordered hatefully. He was shocked that he hadn't started angry crying. "I never did the self-hating thing, Dad. Being gay was never a big deal for me. The reason I never came out wasn't because I was ashamed or embarrassed. It was because I didn't want to deal with you. And it's hilarious because you didn't care about me after I was outed. Just like you didn't care when I was still in the closet.

"Except for that dinner. That damn dinner where you took getting to know me and my boyfriend and made it all about you and your damn slut. And yeah, I went off on you. It almost cost me Noah. And if I had it to do again? I wouldn't, but not because of you or Caroline. Because fuck you two. I won't lose Noah. Not because of you, or his grandfather, or her."

RJ realized he was losing the plot. He was saying too much of the wrong thing. His father picked up on it, too.

"RJ? Are you okay? Is everything okay with Noah?" Even after everything RJ had said, Ridge still believed he was allowed to ask.

"Do I look like I'm okay, you overstuffed garbage bag? You fucked me up! So I'm returning the damn favour. There won't be a moment where I break down and you hold me and call me your little boy. I won't forgive you after one overture of giving fuck about me. I hate you, Dad. And the one who caused that was you. Nobody stopped you from picking up a phone the last three months and trying to work things out. You're only here to do damage control. That fucking bitch Taylor is only here because you didn't even know where I live, right?

"You're as shit of a father as you are a husband and coworker. Everything you touch gets ruined except for your dresses. So that's one thing in your positive column. No, wait, it's the only thing."

"I'm sorry," Ridge told his son.

RJ blinked and his father was gone. Noah was standing there instead.

"What the hell?"

Noah frowned and reach out to him. "RJ, I said I'm sorry. About everything."

"NO!" RJ screamed as he grabbed his head and closed his eyes. He opened them back up and Noah was still there. He stumbled back into the window, as scared as he was livid. "Get out. GET OUT! I don't forgive you. I'll never forgive you!"

"You don't mean that," Noah pleaded. RJ grabbed a vase that had cost over $300 and threw it at Noah, who ducked under it. It crashed into the wall and shattered, falling to the floor in dozens of pieces.

"Get the hell out of my loft and out of my life before I kill you. I never want to see your face again!" RJ followed up on his threat by pulling off one of his shoes and throwing it at Noah. It hit him in the shoulder and Noah stepped back fearfully.

Before RJ could take the other shoe off, the door to the loft opened. All the air left his lungs; he felt like he'd been punched in the stomach.

"Is everything okay in here? I thought I heard a crashing sound." Eden stepped into the loft and looked at Noah, then at RJ. He stumbled away from her, terrified.

"He threw a vase, but nobody is hurt," Noah explained to Eden. She bit her lip and nodded, then began to walk to RJ.

"RJ, it's okay. I know you're mad at me, but just listen. I heard what you said when I was in the hallway. Nobody meant to hurt you. Not even me. I made a mistake."

"I told him to leave, now I'm telling you. Get the fuck out of my loft you fucking whore."

"RJ!" Noah yelled, defending Eden's honour.

"No, it's okay. He's allowed to be mad at me. I did something horrible to him, something for which I may never be able to make up," Eden told Noah, though she never took her eyes off of RJ. She kept creeping closer to him. "Listen, RJ. Just talk to us. We can all be calm, rational adults here. Right?"

"This is your last warning. I'm not kidding," RJ told Eden. "After that, it's all on you."

"I'm a big girl, RJ. Call me whatever you want. Just believe me when I say that he," Eden jerked her head to Noah," loves you. And you won't believe me, but I love you, too. We both love you, RJ. We just want to work through this."

Then RJ punched her in the mouth. It was just the one time, and he wasn't even strong enough to knock her off her feet, but it felt good. It felt amazing. He wanted to do it again, but some strange force stopped him.

"SON!"

RJ blinked and looked to Noah but he was gone. Ridge was back in his place, and Taylor stood where Eden had been seconds before. She was holding her mouth.

"I told you to leave, but you won't listen." RJ's voice was as unsteady as his footing. He feared that he was losing his sanity.

Slowly and carefully, he retrieved his shoe from where it had fallen by his father. While he backed away and slipped it on, Taylor and Ridge watched him. He very carefully tied the laces. Then RJ bolted past them and out the door. He was leaving his keys and his portfolio behind in the loft as he ran to the elevator. He didn't care.

Ridge and Taylor followed him into the hallway and RJ decided to not wait for the elevator. He took off for the staircase. While he wasn't strong, RJ was fast. He would lose them soon enough. He would lose them like he was losing his mind.

B&B

"There you are," Bill said. Caroline was lounging in Liam's bed, reading a fashion magazine. It was print, so the only mentions of her were positive. "Why are you hiding from this? You're a Spencer. We thrive off adversity."

"Uncle Bill, there's no way for me to thrive off this. Someone started a 'KKKaroline" hashtag on Twitter! I'm trending in the US!"

"That's disgusting," Bill spat. "You should be trending worldwide!

"I know!" Caroline whined. "And my Instagram followers has increased, but most of them don't have teeth and have photos of the Confederate Flag as their avatars. Stacey Dash followed me on Twitter, though. I always loved her in Clueless."

Bill laughed as if she said something hysterical. It was mostly to cover that he didn't know who Stacey Dash was. "Well, I have good news, my ethnically challenged niece. You see, I have in my hands the one thing guaranteed to blow your little tirade out of the water and ruin Rick and Maya forever."

"You have no such thing!" Caroline sat up and threw her magazine against Liam's wall without a second thought. She bounced excitedly on the bed. "What is it? What did Myrna do?"

"That's just the thing." Bill grinned mischievously and held up a manila folder. "Her name isn't Myrna."

He handed the folder to Caroline and waited as she looked it over. Caroline spent more than a few minutes parsing through the documents. When she was done, she closed the folder and held it to her chest. "You can't release this."

"What? Why not?" Bill was incredulous. "Caroline, everything you need for the perfect comeback is right there in that folder."

"I would rather the entire world think I'm racist than do this to Maya. I hate her, I hate that she destroyed my marriage to Rick, but not this much."

Bill threw his hands in the air in disbelief. "You know what? Fine. It's your reputation on the line. But just in case you come to your senses, I'll leave that dossier with you. I hope you come to your senses, Caroline. And fast."

As her uncle walked out of the bedroom, Caroline sat the folder on her lap. She ran a hand over the blank cover and wondered if her morals really were more important than salvaging her name.

B&B

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be running International!" Rick barked when she stormed into his office. "And I'm too busy dealing with this Ridge stuff to bother with you!"

"Thorne has it under control. I'm back to save my company, Rick. I won't let you run it into the ground in a vendetta against my dad. I know you're behind this. As soon as I saw it hit the blogs in Paris, I knew it was you. While you were all sleeping, I was on the first flight back to Los Angeles. And I’m putting a stop to this ridiculous game you’re playing."

"Steffy, you don't know what you're talking about."

She leaned on his desk and threw her hair over her shoulder. "No, Rick. I do know what I'm talking about. You've just forgotten who you're dealing with."


	9. Chapter 9

"You're saying RJ did this? Your son? MY BROTHER?!" Steffy stared at her parents and shook her head. She couldn't believe it. When she and RJ had lived together in Paris, he had been anything but vindictive and violent. Now he was making their dad look like a racist and punching her mom in the face? It didn't connect with what she knew of her brother. "This can't be right."

"He confessed to it, Steffy." Ridge picked up the snow globe on his desk and turned it over in his hands. "I had security look this over and there was indeed a recording device on it. It's been removed. Nothing else is getting out."

Steffy looked to her mom, silently asking for confirmation. Taylor nodded in agreement with Ridge's words. "He hit me, Steffy. He threatened to kill your father, too. RJ isn't... He's not handling this situation well."

"I should talk to him. He sees you two as his enemies, but maybe I can talk some sense into him. Get him to tell the press that he edited the whole thing together just to make you look bad." Steffy crossed her arms and leaned against the wall of her father's office. "This isn't right. He's trying to destroy Forrester. And for what? Because mom outed him? Because everyone already knew he was gay. I mean, we've all seen him sashaying pretty much everywhere since he was a little kid."

"He's also mad because your dad left Katie for Caroline. You know how close he and his aunt were whenever he came home during his breaks from school," Taylor reminded Steffy. "He never got over their breakup."

Snorting, Steffy looked at her dad. "I've never had much of a use for Katie, but I do have to agree with RJ on Caroline. You totally traded down, Dad. And because of that, Forrester is going down the drain and Rick is gonna use this to try to force you out of the company. He bragged to me that the Forresters were going to keep control and the Marones were going to end up on the street."

"He would use this to try to get rid of me and Caroline." Ridge scratched his beard and grunted. "It won't work. Between me, you, and Thomas, we're safe. And Bill would never let Spencer vote to terminate his daughter. Rick can't do anything to us."

"Maybe not, but he can hurt the company. The fact that he condemned you and Caroline in the press release is evidence enough. He said that he is 'exploring his options' in regards to your continued employment here, Ridge." Taylor shook her head and rolled her eyes. "But you aren't an employee. You own part of this company. Rick doesn't. He's only in control of Forrester because he and Maya conned Eric into making him CEO."

"At least Maya's gone," Ridge said with a nod to his ex-wife. He looked back to the snow globe in his hands.

"Why do you even still have that?" Steffy marched to her father and took the snow globe from him. "This means nothing! RJ used it to start this whole thing."

"I have it because your brother gave it to me," Ridge explained. He reached out to take it back but Steffy jerked away.

"He gave you a bug, Dad. RJ gave you a lie." Steffy threw the snow globe to the floor and the glass sphere burst open. She began gathering her things to leave. "Mom, I need the address of RJ's apartment. You two may not have been able to put a stop to him, but I will."

B&B

Liam was glad he had Noah in his office. He had pulled him away from Jenna and the D-Pad office for the day to help him brainstorm what to do. He was as close to a neutral party as one could get in regards to Ridge and Caroline.

"Shouldn't your PR department be handling this?" Noah asked as he scratched out another statement Liam had decided wouldn't work. "Things like this are kinda why they exist."

"It's a family matter. It needs to have that familial touch," Liam reasoned. Noah nodded but didn't look as if he got it. "I can't just have those guys throw out something that says nothing."

"I couldn't agree more. Your cousin did nothing wrong. It was all that idiot Ridge," Bill stated loudly as he stormed into Liam's office. Eden was hot on his heels and Liam saw Noah tense up.

"Why did you bring her?" Liam asked, nodding to his father's intern. "I'm sorry, Eden. I just don't know what you can do about this. I don't know what I can do about this."

"I brought a smart, hard-working journalism student. You brought an unemployed guitar player. No offence." Bill looked at Noah, who looked to Liam and shrugged.

"Noah, why don't you go home? I'm sure RJ isn't taking this well. And my dad is about to make an ass of himself."

"Nonsense!" Bill protested, clapping one hand on Noah's shoulder and holding the other up to Noah for a fist bump. "Noah and I are buddies. Aren't we?"

Noah looked at Liam with wide, pleading eyes, then gave Bill a fake smile and performed the expected fist bump. "We sure are, Bill."

"Go home, Noah. It's an order."

"Are you sure?" Noah asked, a genuine smile on his face.

Bill scoffed. "Really?"

"Noah. I'm your boss, and I'm telling you to go home. Leave before I have security escort you out of here."

After mouthing "thank you" to Liam, Noah stood and put his notes on Liam's desk, then sort of bowed to Bill. "Sorry man, I'd love to stay, but I also don't want to be fired."

"You're annoying when you make power plays to spite me," Bill complained to his son. Liam ignored him and watched how Noah's pace picked up as he walked past Eden. Even though Noah did his best to avoid looking at her, she stared right at him. It was so intense Liam felt a chill run down his spine.

"What?" Liam looked at his father. "Sorry, I didn't hear you. I was thinking about what we're going to do about Caroline."

"Do? We're doing nothing. Caroline doesn't work at Spencer. She never has. I talked to her moms and we're going to play that up. And we'll blame Ridge. It's his damn fault this whole thing happened anyway. I'm more than happy to throw him under the bus. Provided he'll actually fit under it."

Liam rolled his eyes. It was going to be such a long day.

B&B

"RJ?" There was a knock on the door.

"How did you find me?" RJ asked. "This was Julian's office. Nobody ever comes in here. They all want to act like he didn't found the company with me. Mom and Amber were more than happy to change the name of the company after my great aunt Pam killed him. It was PR reasons or whatever, and Amber owns half the company, so I guess that makes it okay."

Thad closed the door and joined RJ on the floor. "I read about your dad and his fiancée. How are you handling it?"

"I punched my dad's ex-wife in the face and I'm hiding in a dead man's office. All things considered, I'd say I'm handling it poorly." RJ sighed and pulled at one of the laces on his right shoe. "Thad, I know you've only been here a few weeks, but you'll realize soon enough that this insanity is my normal."

"What do you mean, RJ?" Thad crossed his legs and RJ wondered why this man was even talking to him.

"The scandals, the infighting, the affairs... Nobody in my life seems to know how to be normal. That includes me, by the way. Did I forget to mention I punched a woman today?"

Thad put a comforting hand on RJ's knee and smiled. "I'm sure she had it coming."

"She did," RJ agreed, returning Thad's smile for a couple seconds. "That's not the point, though. The point is that, until today, I've never hit anyone. Not really. I mean, I did throw a woman out of an elevator, but she tripped and fell and it doesn't really count. I've never been violent. It was something I prided myself on, my ability to handle everything with words."

"Who are you hiding from, RJ?" Thad ran his thumb across RJ's kneecap. "Your dad? His ex-wife?"

RJ buried his face in his knees and thought about the answer. He didn't even have his phone. It was still in his loft with everything else. He was lucky security had let him into the L&M building without his keycard.

But none of that mattered because he knew why he was hiding. RJ knew who he was avoiding and it hurt too much to admit to himself, let alone a man he barely knew. It was obvious, though. Even Ridge's stupid ass had figured it out. It was what had set him off, why he hit Taylor. RJ wasn't sorry he hit her, she had gotten off lucky, but he was terrified of what else he was capable of if he could do that.

Thad ran his fingers through RJ's hair and told him that it was going to be okay. He promised him that things would calm down eventually and, if he wanted one, RJ could resume his relationship with this dad.

"That implies I had one to begin with," RJ said as he looked up. He wasn't crying. He had tried, when he was out on the street and in the crowd, and nothing happened. He made a second attempt when he came to L&M and sought out Julian's office. Maybe, just maybe, being in the same room where RJ's friend and mentor had died would bring something out, a couple tears, but nothing happened.

"I'm sorry to hear that. My dad and I weren't close, either," Thad told RJ, his hand on the back of RJ's neck and his fingers playing at his hairline. "He was never an international fashion icon who was had a racist rant leak to the internet, though."

RJ leaned into Tad and sighed. He was a warm body and RJ found that comforting. There was a time Noah would have been the one comforting him, sharing stories about his dad the sex addict or his grandmother the former stripper to make RJ feel like he wasn't the only person whose family was messed up beyond repair.

And RJ knew that if he asked, if he went to Noah and just told him that he needed him, Noah would drop whatever he was doing to make RJ feel better. But it wouldn't work because he was Noah.

"Thad, why did come to this office? How did you know I was here?" RJ laid his head on the man's shoulder and closed his eyes. Thad began stroking his hair again. It was nice.

"Everyone is looking for you, RJ. You didn't show up at the shareholder meeting. Maya doesn't even own any shares and she was there. This whole Forrester thing caused our orders to increase again. The company is seeing numbers near what we had at launch."

"That's nice." RJ was so tired and Thad was so comfortable. "Can you... Can you not tell them that you found me? In fact, can you stay here just a little bit longer?"

"Sure. But if your mom calls, I need to go," Thad told him.

RJ reluctantly raised his head and looked at Thad. He was so close. So handsome. "That reminds me. I don't have my phone. Can I borrow yours?"

Thad nodded, and RJ watched closely as the man licked his lips while retrieving his phone from his pocket. He handed it to RJ with a smile that bordered on smoldering. "If you're calling or texting someone, go for it. But I've almost used up my data for the month."

"Okay," RJ said as he fiddled with the phone until it shut off. He handed the powered down device back to its owner. "Now nobody will call you. You can stay here with me."

"But..." Thad started to say something, but RJ was already leaning in to kiss him. He nearly fell into the man's lap when Thad jerked away.

Recovering, RJ sat upright and looked to the floor in embarrassment and shame. What had he been thinking? He had a boyfriend! "Sorry."

"It's okay. You just caught me by surprise. I had no idea." Reaching out, Thad turned RJ's face back to him and he licked his lips again. When he kissed RJ, any feelings of guilt over Noah vanished.

In his twenty years of life, Noah was the only man RJ had kissed like this. He was the only one RJ had slept with. And it didn't seem fair. If Noah could pine after Eden while in a relationship with RJ, if he could kiss her and RJ could forgive him, then fair was only fair.

"Lock the door," RJ ordered after he had already unzipped Thad's pants. It was his turn to lick his lips.

B&B

When Noah had arrived home, the door to the loft was wide open but nothing was missing. RJ had probably just forgotten to close it when he left for work. The news had shaken him up that morning, and he'd been acting odd even before it broke.

He spent the first hour just double checking that nothing had been stolen. RJ's phone, the TV, and the PlayStation were all still there. As was the portfolio filled with whatever designs RJ and Amber had come up with. There was a broken vase. That worried Noah, gave him enough pause to wonder if RJ had maybe been kidnapped, but it was more than likely RJ himself had broken it. Whenever he got really mad, RJ could break things. The loft had been trashed when they returned home from Genoa City.

The second hour was spent waiting and reading about Ridge and Caroline. They were all over Twitter, Facebook, and the blogs. There were even videos on the big news sites about it. It was weird for Noah, because he'd only met Ridge once and Caroline twice, and they were both really lovely people to him.

During the third hour of waiting, there was a knock on the door. Noah hoped it was RJ even though his usual workday didn't end for a while. It wasn't RJ.

"Who the hell are you?" The woman asked after she had pushed past Noah and stormed into the apartment. She seemed familiar, like Noah had seen her before, but he couldn't place her. "Where is RJ?"

"Um, I'm Noah Newman," he answered nervously. "RJ's out. You can probably catch him at L&M."

"Oh. You're the boyfriend." The woman slowly looked Noah up and down, an appreciative grin on her face. "My brother may be an asshole, but he apparently has good taste in men."

There was nothing Noah could say to that, so he didn't. Instead, he focused on a throwaway line. "Brother? RJ is your brother?"

"That's right, Noah Newman. We haven't had the pleasure of meeting until now. I'm Steffy Forrester. RJ and I share the same father. That's why I'm going to wait here for him to come back. Because there's no point in me going to L&M. I'll never make it past security."

"You're worried about him, too? About the stuff with your dad and Caroline?"

That was obviously the wrong thing to ask, because Steffy got the same pissed off look RJ did whenever someone mentioned his father and his fiancée.

"Did RJ not tell you, Noah Newman?" Steffy asked, crossing her arms and leaning to the left.

"Just... Just call me Noah," he insisted weakly. He had no idea what Steffy was talking about.

Steffy gave a hateful laugh, which was not unlike something RJ would do. It was kinda scary has many mannerism they shared.

"Okay then, Noah. RJ was the one who leaked that recording of my dad and his child bride. He hid a recording device in a snow globe and gave it to him yesterday as a peace offering. He pretended to want to make up with them just so he could ruin them. Not such a standup guy, my brother."

Noah gave a nonchalant shrug. It totally sounded like something RJ would do. When he hated someone, nothing would stop him. He would do anything he could to get his way. RJ’s visit to Genoa City was evidence enough of that.

"He didn't put those words in their mouths, though," Noah argued, which set Steffy off even further.

"That doesn't matter! What matters is that RJ betrayed our father. He has no family loyalty. I guess a Logan wouldn't." Steffy rolled her eyes then shook her head. "Noah, you may be living with and sleeping with my brother like the rentboy model you resemble, but how well do you know him? Because this was just his opening move. He punched my mother in the face."

"Your mom is Taylor?" Noah asked. Steffy nodded. "I've gotta be honest: that doesn't break my heart. She outed me and Noah to the entire world. If I weren't a gentleman, I would have punched your mom in the face, too."

"Ugh. Like anything even came of that. People stopped caring almost immediately. We all knew RJ was gay, and nobody even knew who the hell you were beyond the guy who fucked Brooke the week before. Not. A. Big. Deal."

"Did you just dismiss Taylor outing me?" Noah blanched at Steffy.

"I'm dismissing you in general. You may be hot, but you aren't very smart. I'm not going to stick around after all, but I will find my brother. He's not going to stop unless I stop him."

Steffy pushed past Noah and opened the door that led to the hallway. Before she stepped out of the loft, she looked back over her shoulder and ran her eyes across Noah one final time and licked her lips seductively. Then she left.


	10. Chapter 10

It bothered RJ that he didn't feel guilty. He hadn't... It wasn't sexual intercourse, but it was still sex. He had still cheated on Noah and he didn't feel bad about it. It wasn't even that he felt guilty about not feeling guilty. It just there, and it made him wonder if learning about Noah kissing Eden had broken something in him.

He stood outside the Forrester Creations building and wiped his mouth. There was nothing there, no trace of Thad Pasado, but RJ still felt it. The way he'd kissed RJ was nothing like how Noah kissed him. And when he... Thad had pulled on his hair and forced his head up and down where Noah would lovingly touch his face and let RJ work at his own pace. And RJ wasn't sure which approach he preferred: he was so confused.

"Why am I here?" RJ asked himself. Security had let him through. Rick had left his visitation privileges in place. Or Ridge hadn't had time to try to revoke them. Either way, RJ stared at the "FC" logo and wondered just what he was doing. Was he looking for another pointless fight with his dad? Did he want to see how Layla and Rick were handling things?

Nobody had seen him leave L&M, but the same security guard who had let him in also let him out. Thad had written his phone number on a piece of scrap paper. He told RJ to call him anytime. That paper was still in his pocket even though RJ had long since memorized the number. It had been the longest taxi ride of his life. At least he had grabbed his wallet before his dad stopped by the loft. It would have sucked to be in Los Angeles with no money when he didn't want anyone able to find him.

All RJ wanted was someone to talk to, someone he could confide in without judgment. Amber used to be that person, but he couldn't come to her with this. She was his best friend, probably his only friend, but he didn't want to put her in the position of lying to Noah. Maybe Katie? She might not understand, but she definitely wouldn't judge. RJ loved Brooke, but he couldn't talk to her about this. There were things a son could never say to his mother.

"RJ? Is that you?"

Not trusting his ears, RJ turned around and saw his sister storming across the parking lot to him.

"Steffy? What are you doing here?"

Her answer was slapping him across the face. The blow was so hard that his entire body jerked and he almost fell over. After he recovered, he looked at her and rubbed his cheek.

"That was for my mother, RJ. You have some damn nerve coming here after what you did." Steffy pulled her hand back to slap him again, but he backpedaled out of her reach.

RJ tested his jaw before speaking. "I see you talked to Dad."

"Why would you do that to him, RJ? What did Dad ever do to you? Caroline I could understand, but he's our father!" Steffy yelled, lowering her hand. He didn't trust her to not hit him again.

"Nothing, Steffy. He did nothing to me. Or for me. I was never a factor in his life. I wasn't one of Taylor's children, so I didn't matter. Not like you or Thomas. Hell, he cares more about Phoebe and her stupid ass is dead!"

Steffy stepped up to slap RJ again but he ducked under it and bounced even further away.

"Fuck you, RJ! Just because you didn't grow up around Phoebe doesn't mean you get to talk about her like that." Steffy was livid. "Surely even you can find a way to hate Dad without being such a little bitch about our sister."

RJ almost apologized. He knew he had gone too far. Punching Taylor was one thing: she'd had it coming for months. But just because RJ never really knew Phoebe, that didn't make it okay to trash her.

"Fine," he acquiesced. "I shouldn't have brought up our sister."

"Thank you." Steffy looked like she was calming down, so RJ let himself do the same. "RJ, this isn't you. Ruining our father, trashing Forrester, attacking my mother: the guy I lived with in Paris wouldn't do any of this. My brother is better than this."

"How would you know, Steffy? You ignored me in Paris, just like Dad did. You had a miscarriage and Liam left you and Grandmother had just died. Every person who lived in those suites was a miserable wreck. And I noticed your pain. I saw you and dad struggling but I didn't know how to help. I was a kid.

"But I was a mess, too, just on the inside. I had to keep everything together so that I could finish school. You and Dad went to work at Forrester but you two were mindless zombies."

"We were grieving, RJ. I had a child die inside of me. Dad lost his mother. You had, what, a hard time drawing your web comic? Yeah, I remember the web comic. I remember that you wanted to be a cartoonist instead of a designer. I remember you moping around dinner whenever the teachers would give you negative feedback. We paid attention, RJ."

Stunned, RJ could only blink as Steffy lectured him. He didn't even remember his comic. He'd given it up after a couple months because he couldn't keep up with the release schedule and school.

"And quit acting like your being gay has anything to do with anything. Nobody in the family has disowned you, or called you names. We supported you publicly and privately. Dad even invited you and your boyfriend to a special dinner because he wanted you to be there when he proposed to Caroline! He wanted you to be part of his life and you returned the gesture by spitting in his face.

"And I know all about that because he called me afterward crying. Caroline was a mess, too, but whatever. Nobody cares about her. Dad tries with you and all you do is hurt him because you won't grow up. Stop being a whiny brat, RJ. Dad and Caroline didn't out you. That was my mom. And guess what? Everyone already knew you were gay because we aren't as stupid as you think!

"We were waiting for you to be comfortable enough to come out. And you can barely call it being outed by my mom when you were making out with a guy in an airport, RJ. There were people everywhere! And Noah was already tabloid fodder because he fucked Brooke. Quit acting like she recorded a sex tape."

RJ began to shake. His anger was returning. "Who the hell are you to act like being outed isn't a big deal? It is one of the most personal things a person can do, coming to terms with being different from the norm and having the pride to share that with everyone else."

"Oh please, save the inspiring speeches for the GLAAD awards, RJ. My mom wasn't a factor in what you did. You just wanted to play at being a badass and ruining someone's life. If Forrester goes out of business because of this, or has to downsize, do you know how many people are going to lose their jobs? Because you decided that public shaming our father is a better way to work through your daddy issues than therapy?"

"Now you're gonna get self-righteous? Steffy, you are the last person who should be judging me right now. Or did you conveniently forget that you spent three years dedicated to making Hope's life a living hell? You harassed her for wanting to wait until marriage. It's not for me, either, but I'm not going to hate someone who chooses to wait. Not like you did."

"Hope isn't here, RJ! And she's not the paragon of virtue you think she is. Did you miss her pill popping period when you were in Paris? Or how she never actually married Liam until Italy, and she had that annulled?"

"Because you spent the wedding day seducing her groom!" RJ screamed. Steffy could say whatever she wanted about him, but he would be damned if he was going to let her talk trash about Hope. "Or do you need a reminder about the other wedding, where Liam went out partying with you the night before?"

"And she chose to walk away from him, RJ. And I welcomed him into my heart and my bed. I never took Liam away from Hope. She gave him to me each and every time because she didn’t think he was worth fighting for. He wasn’t worth being forgiven for momentary lapses in judgment."

RJ felt as if he had been hit again. He remembered telling Noah he forgave him, but he also remembered what had just happened with Thad. And all he felt about it was anger. He focused that anger on Steffy.

"What do you want, Steffy? Are you just here to yell and scream at me because I have better things to do than deal with your tacky ass?" RJ planted his feet on the pavement and stared his older sister down. She crossed her arms and flared her nostrils.

"What I want is for you to admit that you edited that tape together to make Dad look bad. I want you to go to the press and confess that you falsified that tape out of some sick sense of spite, and then I want you to stay as far away from Forrester Creations as humanly possible."

"And why the hell would I do any of those things? Because I didn't edit that shit together, Steffy. That was our dad telling Layla that he could smell watermelon the second she walked into the room. Because of course his mind would go straight to food." RJ rolled his eyes. "And I'm not going to stay away from Forrester unless Rick, the CEO and my brother, tells me to do so. After all he is a real Forrester."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean, RJ? A 'real Forrester'? Because the last time I checked, you didn't want to be one anymore anyway. And since my name is on that building and yours isn't, you have absolutely no say. You can go back to L&M with the rest of the trash."

"It means you're the child of a Marone bastard, Steffy. For all the shit you've said over the years about my mom and my siblings and the Logans, we've never pretended to be something we're not. Rick and Bridget ARE Forresters. Hope and I ARE Logans. Jack is... He's something. But you? You and Dad and Thomas are just frauds wearing a name that you neither earned nor deserved. And without the Forrester name, what are you, Steffy? Just another pathetic castoff with no life outside of her work because nobody can love you."

"You have ten minutes to get off the property before I call security, RJ. I may not be a Forrester by blood, and I may be a charlatan wearing the name, but it is still my name. I'm not turning my back on my name or my company. And I will be damned if I see a spoiled child like you destroy everything Granddad and Grandmother worked for."

"I don't think I want to be here after all," RJ spat at Steffy, looking her over. "The smell of rotten tuna always did make me queasy."

Then he spun on his heel and began to walk off the grounds, ignoring whatever it was Steffy was yelling at him. Even though he had already memorized the number, RJ fished the scrap paper out of his pocket and looked it over. He didn't want to go home. He didn't want to deal with anyone else for the rest of the day. Hopefully, the gate guard would be kind enough to let RJ borrow his phone for a quick call.

B&B

"Steffy Forrester. To what do I owe the pleasure? I didn't know you were back in LA." Bill leaned back in his chair and smiled at his former would-be-lover-turned-ex-daughter-in-law.

"Don't even try to charm me, Bill. This is not the day." Steffy kicked shut the door to his office. "You and I need to talk. It seems we have some common goals and enemies."

"And what might those be?" Bill asked, amused by her anger. He put his hands behind his head and began rocking in his seat.

"For starters, there's RJ."

"What about the kid? Katie and Will adore him. He's a little flouncy for my tastes, personally, but at least he doesn't eat tofu and buy groceries at organic farmers markets."

Steffy tilted her head and spent a few seconds just blinking at Bill. Then she seemed to regain her composure. "Bill, this tape of my dad and Caroline and Layla Williamson? RJ was the one who leaked it to the press. He confessed to it. He's proud of it!"

"He what?" Bill was no longer amused. Leaning forward, he put his fists on his desk, knuckles down, and pushed himself into a standing position. "RJ Logan, your little brother, is the reason my niece is a pariah on social media?"

"And my dad," Steffy reminded Bill. He waved that away because he couldn't be bothered to even pretend to care about Ridge. "Bill, I tried talking to him, but he's beyond reason. So we need to bring him down before he can do anything else. Everyone else wants to use kid gloves with him, but I know you won't. You've always been a bare knuckle brawler."

Bill thought of the woman pretending to be Eden. He couldn't reveal that to Steffy, but he could still use it. Soon, he would sit down with her and see just what progress she had made on that plot.

"Just what do you have in mind, Steffy?"

"I haven't talked to my brother in years, not really. He's a completely different person from who he was in Paris. That means I need to find his new weakness. We need to find out what it is that will completely destroy him."

"That's an easy one, Steffy.” Bill sat back down in his chair. “Why did RJ come back to Los Angeles?"

Her eyes grew wide and she smiled. "L&M. RJ came here to recruit Brooke for his new fashion company. I didn't mind it at first, because it got her out of Forrester, but it gave him the autonomy to think he can ruin Forrester without consequences. He was wrong."

"I own a portion of Forrester. I have a vested interest in making sure that company succeeds. But Logan & Moore?" Bill stroked his facial hair and chuckled darkly. "We're going to ruin them."

"But how, Bill? The Ivy scandal barely dented them. And Pam killing that Julian Crane guy did more damage to Forrester in the public eye."

Bill laughed again and opened a drawer on his desk. Even though had given Caroline a copy of the file, she didn't have the only one. He handed it to Steffy.

She opened it and her mouth dropped open. Then she laughed. "Maya? Really? That's hilarious! But that would affect Rick, not L&M. Aren't they all about the diversity thing? How would this change anything?"

"Because of the hypocrisy, Steffy. Because L&M ran around talking about celebrating diversity and people being themselves and all that other crap, and Maya Avant is the face of the company and she's lying about who and what she is."

"I don't know. Using her to get to my brother..."

"She sided with Rick and helped him steal Forrester away from your father. She broke up Rick and Caroline. Maya isn't an innocent in any of this. She is directly responsible for Caroline getting together with your father. She is the reason Rick hired that Layla woman and marginalized my niece."

"And my father," Steffy agreed. She closed the folder and held it to her chest. "You aren't wrong. Maya earned this. RJ earned this. Amber and Brooke have long since earned this."

"So what do you say?" Bill asked, holding his hand to Steffy.

She looked at it, then reached out and shook it. "I say it looks like we're going to war."

B&B

Caroline had beat Ridge home. He wasn't particularly surprised: she had spent the day hiding from the paparazzi while he dealt with work and family. From the living room, he could hear her singing off key in the shower.

Taking off his coat, Ridge walked to the fridge. He wondered if she had bought anything for him to eat. The five Big Macs on the drive home hadn't been anywhere near enough.

After closing the fridge and being thankful his fiancée thought to grab him a bucket of chicken, Ridge saw a manila folder lying on the counter. He popped the lid off the chicken and grabbed a wing, then sat the bucket down and opened the folder.

As he read the folder's contents, Ridge nearly dropped his chicken. The things he was reading, if true, would completely change the game. All the attention would be taken off of him and Caroline. People would stop talking about Forrester Creations.

Ridge looked to the bedroom door, the sounds of Caroline singing and rapping along to some Iggy Azalea song proved to him that she didn't know he was home. He closed the folder, tucked it under his arm, grabbed his bucket of chicken, and left the flat.


	11. Chapter 11

He sat with has back against the headboard. Next to him, the Forrester heir slept. It hadn't taken much work: RJ Logan had all but thrown himself at him. The man who pretended to be Thad Pasado chuckled and ran a knuckle the length of RJ's back.

Unlike Courtney Sloan, who had cosmetic surgery to look like someone else, Thad had just enough done so that he didn't resemble anyone. Thad Pasado wasn't a real person. He was a fake name with a fake backstory, created for a specific purpose.

In one night, he had done what Courtney had failed to do in weeks. She had told him she knew who he really was. Courtney claimed she knew he wasn't gay. She wasn't wrong. He wasn't gay, but he wasn't straight, either. Labels didn’t matter to him. Only Eden, the real Eden, mattered. And if he had to sleep with this man to get her, then he would do just that.

Victor would need to know, if he didn't already. The man looked to the one camera in his apartment whose location he knew. There were more, probably everywhere. It was just as well. It wasn't like he and RJ had kept the fun confined to the bed.

Soon, he would receive his new instructions. His first objective had been merely to gain RJ's trust. They'd skipped several steps of the plan in one night. There was no friendship, no flirtation, and no seduction. Everything he had been plotting for the long term had been rendered pointless. He wondered why. Why had RJ sought him out?

He had forgiven Noah Newman for whatever happened with Courtney. She was still playing the long game, but she wasn't doing a very good job of it. Noah was still in RJ's home, still in his bed, and yet RJ was in Thad's.

"Wake up," he ordered with a nudge, watching as RJ groaned and rolled over to look at the clock. The man looked back to him and he clearly wasn't awake yet.

"It's four in the morning, Thad," RJ mumbled as he rubbed at his eyes.

"Doesn't matter. You need to wake up." He kissed RJ, and RJ groggily reciprocated.

"Why? You told me I could stay here as long as I needed." Even though he was still half-asleep, RJ was already smiling. He leaned in for another kiss. The man reminded himself that Eden was waiting for him to free her. He obliged.

He reached over and grabbed RJ's small body, dragging him across the bed and into his lap.

"Oh. I see," RJ murmured, almost to the point of being awake. He laughed and kissed Thad again. "Is this why you woke me? Because I don't have to work until nine, but I can tell you have a job for me already."

B&B

"Amber? Have you seen the news?" It was no secret that Brooke didn't particularly care for Amber. If she had her way she wouldn't even need the woman's number in her phone, but the situation was dire enough to require a phone call.

"About Maya? Yeah. I've tried to get ahold of her, but she's not answering her cell." Brooke heard Amber's breath catch. "How's Rick taking it?"

Sighing, Brooke closed her eyes and wished she were still drinking. Her life had been so much less annoying when she had cocktails with every meal.

"Rick is not your concern, Amber. It's bad enough you got your dollar store press-on claws into my company, but I won't let you sink them into my son, too," Brooke snarled. "What about RJ? Has he been able to talk to her?"

"Brooke, RJ never came to work today. I know we wrote yesterday off because of the whole Ridge and Caroline thing, but..."

Brooke hung up on Amber. This couldn't be happening again. RJ promised her he was done disappearing. Her lead model and lead designer were both AWOL after back-to-back scandals. L&M's PR department and her own office phone were swamped with calls and Thad had called in sick an hour before the Maya story broke. Brooke debated calling Thad back and telling him to come in anyway, but it wasn't like he could really do anything about this.

Instead of Thad, Brooke called Liam.

"Hey, Brooke," he answered. "I was wondering how you were coping over there. Is it true? About Maya?"

"Why don't you go read the Restless Style website and find out?" she snapped. Brooke sighed again and ran her hand through her hair. "I'm sorry. It's just really stressful here right now. I need to see you. Are you free tonight?"

"For you? I'll make time," Liam promised.

B&B

Layla was pissed. Rick was shaken and she understood it, but she also didn't care. "You have to release a statement of support for Maya, Rick. Even if you end the engagement, and I won't blame you for that if you do because this is huge, but Forrester Creations needs to say that it stands behind Maya. Or were all those words you gave me about wanting to change this company lies?"

"What do you want me to say, Layla? That I don't mind my fiancée being a man? RJ is the gay one, not me." Rick rubbed his forehead and stared at the glass of scotch he'd poured. When he realized why he had woken up to an empty bed, he wanted a drink. But even though he had been holding the glass for hours, he had yet to take a sip. He hadn't even bothered to get dressed.

"Maya is not a man, Rick. She is trans. Don't you get what that means?" Layla snatched the scotch from him hand and slammed it on the sofa table, spilling half of its contents. "She should have told you. I have trans friends. Not many, but enough to know that disclosure with a cis partner is considered important. So I get why you would personally be pissed off, but you still need to publicly back her. Or I'm walking."

"You have a contract, Layla. You can't break it," Rick reminded her angrily. "We will sue you."

"Because after yesterday, you think suing me is a good idea?" Layla reached out and held Rick's hand. "You don't have to mean it. You can hate Maya and want her out of your life because she lied to you. But what you can't do is abandon her to the prejudicial masses.

"This is no different from when RJ was outed. It was some hateful asshole looking for payback and using a third party to get it."

"What are you saying, Layla? Do you know who did this? Who was it that made me look like an idiot to the entire world?"

"Who do you think, Rick? Who would hate you so much they would destroy Maya's life just to make you look bad? Who would benefit the most from outing her?" Layla asked, squeezing his hand.

Rick looked up into her eyes. He had been mad when she came to the mansion and found him reading article after article about Maya. He had been mad when she took his tablet away and started yelling at him for abandoning his company and his fiancée. But what she saw in his eyes at that moment wasn't anger. It was murder.

"Ridge," he said coldly, actually making Layla a little bit scared. "Ridge did this to me. To her. Ridge and Caroline."

"You need to get dressed, Rick. After that, you need to come with me to Forrester Creations. We're going to call a press conference, you're going to say that you support Maya being who she is. You don't have to mean it. Lie if you need. And after that, you're going to refuse any questions, you're going to walk away from that podium, and then we are going to destroy those two. They thought yesterday was bad?"

"They have no idea what's coming." Rick smiled, and it was one of the most horrifying things Layla had ever seen.

B&B

"You really don't have anything better to do?" Thad asked as RJ ate his third cup of yogurt for the day.

Shrugging, RJ thought about the things he should be doing. He had a company that needed him. Steffy had made it clear she was now his enemy, and he needed to find a way to neutralize her. And Noah... He had Eden if he got lonely.

"Nah. Do you know how many opportunities I get to unplug from the world? No internet, no phone calls, no TV or radio or magazines... How do you not have a TV? Are you one of those hipsters who reads boring books and talk about them with other hipsters over horribly overpriced coffee?"

"I don't have a TV because I had to sell it for my security deposit on my apartment. And I just got my first paycheck the other day, which bought all the food you've eaten," Thad told RJ with a wink. "And besides, any TV shows I would watch can be seen on my laptop."

"You smug ass cord cutter," RJ laughed as he opened a fourth cup of yogurt. It was blueberry. "And don't give me shit about my appetite. You are the one who keeps wearing out my energy reserves. And if it's that big a deal, I can always have replacement groceries delivered. I never leave my place with less than a grand in cash."

RJ grabbed his pants from the floor and threw them on the bed, where Thad lay looking at him.

"My wallet's in there. Take as much as you need." RJ finished the blueberry yogurt and then threw the trash in the bin by the fridge. He was still hungry, so he grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl on the counter. It wasn't like he really needed to worry about calories: Thad had already given him more than a daily workout before noon.

"What I need isn't money." Thad ran his eyes over RJ, who felt the need to strike a flirty pose with the banana.

"How the hell are you ready to go AGAIN?!" RJ snorted and began peeling the banana open. "You haven't eaten since you made those eggs for breakfast. I'm already up. Do you want something?"

"Fine." Thad gave a humoured sigh and sat up. "I'll take one of the grapefruit. I have some of those fruit spoons with the jagged edges in the drawer under the fruit bowl."

"Do you want a bowl for the rind?"

Chuckling, Thad shook his head. "It's a peel, not a rind. And I'll just use my coffee cup from breakfast. It's not like there's anything in it right now."

To prove his point, Thad leaned back to grab the mug. RJ took the opportunity to marvel over how in shape the man was, then looked down at his own body and frowned. He wasn't fat, and while he wasn't a gym person, he did like to run. Nonetheless, being lean was nothing compared to being ripped. Thad even put Noah's body to shame.

So why was this fine man messing around with someone like RJ? Thad totally had the "masc looking for masc" look, if not the vibe.

"See? Empty." Thad turned the coffee cup upside down and the cup was indeed bone dry.

"Can I ask you something?" RJ asked, turning away from the man who had spent the entire day fucking him. He pulled open the drawer with one hand and sifted through the silverware, holding his partially eaten banana in the other. "Why did you do it?"

"I'm sorry?"

RJ looked back to Thad and tossed him the grapefruit spoon. He grabbed one of the round citrus fruit from the bowl and brought it to Thad, sitting next to him on the bed.

"That's an orange," Thad pointed out, taking the fruit anyway. He stabbed the orange with the spoon and began peeling it.

"Sorry."

"It's cool. Now what is it I'm supposed to have done?"

Biting his lip, RJ looked down to his banana. He was nervous. After everything he had done to Thad, and let Thad do to him, it was a conversation that gave him pause.

"Me," RJ clarified. "Yesterday in Julian's office, you kissed me."

"You tried to kiss me first," Thad argued. It was a valid point.

"And you pulled away. You said it was because I caught you off guard, which is fair because we've barely spoken since you were hired at L&M, but then you kissed me anyway. And you let me..."

"I let you blow me," Thad finished nonchalantly. "And then you called me later and asked if I could pick you up and take you home. At first, I thought you meant your place, but you grabbed my dick in the car and specified that you wanted my little one room studio apartment. Did you not notice I had to make the eggs on the windowsill with a tiny propane grill? Why would you want to come here?"

Noah happily hugging RJ and telling him how much he loved him came to mind and RJ shuddered. Thad must have noticed because he put an arm around RJ's shoulders. He looked over and saw the half-peeled orange sitting on top of the coffee cup. The spoon was wedged underneath the orange.

"After everything that happened yesterday, my loft is the last place I want to be. Everyone wants to talk to me about my dad and why I leaked the tape and blah blah blah."

"You leaked the tape?" Thad asked. RJ looked up from the cup wedged between Thad's legs and to the man's face. He looked surprised, but he didn't seem to be judging RJ. It was appreciated: Noah probably would've been mad at him. Noah always got mad when RJ did stuff like that.

"Yeah. My dad and I don't have the best relationship." RJ didn't see the need to tell Thad about anyone else's involvement in the scheme. It wasn't even like it mattered anymore. Steffy and Ridge and Taylor all knew he planted the bug itself. That was all that mattered.

"So you've said." Thad pulled RJ close and kissed his temple. It was a small thing. It should have been nothing, but it was something RJ hadn't expected.

Casting his eyes to where his bare feet hovered just above the hardwood floor, RJ sighed. "You never answered my question."

"I didn't? What was the question again?"

When RJ looked back up to Thad, there were tears in his eyes. They weren't sad tears, nor were they angry. All RJ felt was disappointment, but he didn't know where to aim it.

"You are one of the best looking guys I've ever met. And I work in fashion, so I don't say that lightly. You could have any man you wanted with a snap of your fingers. So why would you want me? I'm a tiny little fey guy with a big mouth and an even bigger attitude. Objectively, I'm good looking, but nobody would call me hot. So why?"

Thad kissed RJ again, then used his thumb to wipe the tears from his eyes. It stung a bit, from where Thad had just been handling the orange, but RJ didn't see the need to say anything about it.

"Because that's my type," Thad told RJ with a smile that radiated sincerity. "I just love bossy little bottoms who fuss over their hair and whether their shirts match their shoes."

RJ sat his banana on the nightstand, then took the coffee cup from Thad and sat it next to the banana. He crawled onto Thad's lap and pushed on his chest until the man relented and lay back on the bed. Bending down, RJ kissed him again and reached between Thad's legs.

"So, I can already tell, but I'll ask anyway. Are you ready for round four?"

B&B

When there was a knock on the door, Noah hoped it was RJ. It hadn't been the day before, but that had been then. His boyfriend had to come home sometime. After all, he had been seen at Forrester after Steffy had stopped by the loft, so he wasn't dead: RJ was just hiding from everyone again.

"Oh," Noah said when he saw Maya in the hallway.

"I'm sorry?" she said quietly. "If you want me to go... I didn't know where else to go. I can leave."

Shaking his head, Noah stepped back and welcomed his guest. "I saw the news when I was at Spencer this morning. I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

"You aren't going to ask if it's true?" Maya kept her head down and walked into the loft. "I spent over a thousand dollars on a cab, told the driver to go to San Francisco, then when we got there I had him come back. When we returned to LA, this was the only place I could think to go. RJ's invited me and Rick over before, but he never really meant it so I never took him up on it."

"Why would you take a cab to San Francisco and back again? Why not just stay there if you wanted to hide?" Noah shut the door and guided Maya to the sofa. "Do you want anything to drink?"

"I could use a cup of tea."

Noah gave her a small smile and shook his head. "I don't know how to make tea. RJ keeps trying to teach me, but I just suck at it. We have soda. Or water. Liam left coconut water the last time he visited, but I don't drink water unless it comes from a faucet or a plastic bottle."

Maya finally looked up at Noah. She was smiling, too, but it was a sad one. "I'll have just water then. And I knew the moment I checked into a hotel the press would know where I was, just to answer your question. I don't have friends in San Francisco I could stay with. I barely have friends in LA. Just Layla, really. Amber and I are friendly, but she's Amber."

"I already know what that means," Noah agreed with a nod. He stood and fetched a water bottle from the fridge. "Why would you come here, though? Why not go to Layla? Not that I mind you coming here, Maya. I won't tell anyone, and when he comes home, RJ won't, either. You have my word."

"That's why," she told Noah as she took the bottle from him and cracked it open. "I love Layla to death, but I don't know that she wouldn't tell Rick where I am in an attempt to make things better. This can't be made better. Either he'll accept it, or he won't."

"And you're afraid he won't?" Noah sat next to Maya but didn't touch her. He didn't really know what to do.

"No, Noah. It's not that I'm afraid he'll reject me. It's that I know he will."


	12. Chapter 12

"I think I've been more than patient, 'Eden'," Bill told the woman. "I've been waiting for you to do something. Anything, really. And all you've done is waste my time. Don't try to sell me on the elevator thing, either. I saw the video. You were pathetic. For someone who claims to work for Victor Newman, you aren't very good at your job."

"My job isn't to break up Noah and RJ, Bill. It's to get Noah back. He was my fiancé. We were supposed to get married."

"I'm sure it's fascinating, your whole life story, but I really don't care. Because unless you want me to tell the whole world who you are, unless you want to try explaining what happened to the real Eden Baldwin, you will step things up. I want you to sleep with Noah Newman. Tonight. And then I want you to tell the world that Ridge Forrester made you do it."

"What changed, Bill? You were content to let me go at my own pace. I was making progress. Why spoil everything I've done?"

Bill played with his necklace. He laughed. "RJ Logan happened. I still want Ridge Forrester away from my niece, but that's become secondary. RJ tried to destroy his father, and while I would normally find that admirable, he also came after Caroline. I won't let that go unpunished. I've already started setting things in motion to dismantle his company. Logan & Moore will soon be nothing, but that isn't enough. I need that brat himself left in ruins."

"Are you telling me RJ was the one who leaked the audio of Ridge Forrester and your niece? Why haven't you released that information? You own a publishing company."

"Oh, I will. Trust me on that. Every dirty secret RJ Logan has will be dragged out into the light with enough time. When I aim to destroy someone, I go for total annihilation. Which you will learn if you disappoint me."

It was the woman's turn to laugh. "Bill Spencer, you need to learn who you can and can't threaten. You told me once that you weren't afraid of me or Victor Newman, but you really should be. You're good at what you do, but Victor is the best. Nobody has ever beaten him. You won't be the first."

"No, I won't," Bill agreed, leaning on his desk and looking into the woman's eyes. She was deadly serious. It amused him. "But someone already has beaten Victor Newman. That person was RJ. You wouldn't be here if that wasn't the case."

"That was one battle, Bill. Victor Newman doesn't care about battles: he plans to win wars. And you made yourself Victor’s enemy when you blackmailed me. We already have a contingency plan in place to deal with you, should you get too far out of line. Just know that.”

"I'm sure you two think you have something, but you're underestimating me. I didn't get where I am by being afraid of little girls and old men, Courtney." After saying her name, Bill leaned back in his seat and waited to see her reaction. She smiled.

"I never said it was just the two of us, Bill. It never was. But I'll seduce Noah tonight, because the thought of destroying RJ amuses me. But this is the last time you will ever speak to me like this."

B&B

There was another knock on the door, and Noah was certain that it was RJ. He had been telling himself that all day, that his boyfriend would come home. When he got to the door, he peered through the peephole just to be safe. Nobody else could know Maya was there. After confirming that it was RJ, Noah spared a glance to the bathroom door, where she was taking a shower.

"You're okay," Noah said happily after opening the door. He hugged his boyfriend, pulled him inside, and shut the door. "You forgot your phone, and you didn't come home last night. You promised me you were going to stop doing this kinda stuff!"

RJ didn't say anything. He just looked up at Noah. Then he kissed him. Or, rather, he tried to kiss Noah. The moment his lips touched Noah's, RJ lost the ability to stand. His knees hit the floor loudly and he let out a sob that broke Noah's heart.

It was obvious he was taking it hard, everything happening with Ridge. Noah didn't know how to help. Even though he had been through it, his mother had been dragged through the press on countless occasions, Noah had never been the cause of it. He'd never sold a story on his mom to further his career or get revenge.

Noah didn't know how to help RJ with his guilt, so he just held RJ and let him cry. It was all he could do.

Then RJ stopped crying. He pushed Noah away, pushed him to the floor. "You don't get to touch me anymore." His voice was still wet and raw, but it was also hard. RJ's stare was stone, even as tears continued to fall down his face.

"What?" There was nothing else that Noah could think to say. "RJ?"

"I thought I could... Maybe we... But no. It's no use." RJ rose to his feet and walked away from Noah. He grabbed his phone from the charger. Noah just sat on the floor, confused, and watched. "I forgot this."

"That's all you're going to say?" Noah stood and stared at his boyfriend. He was mad. "You disappear for almost two days, and when you come back you don't want me touching you? You forgot your fucking phone?"

"I thought we could work it out. When I saw you, I realized just what I'd done. I thought I was garbage. But you're just as bad as me. No, you're worse. You can't keep any of your damn promises. You're just like my dad."

RJ put his phone in his pocket and started to storm past Noah and out of the loft, but Noah grabbed his arm. "What the hell are you talking about? RJ, I know you leaked the tape of your dad and Caroline, but I don't care about that right now. I care about you. Where were you? What is going on with you?"

"Isn't it obvious?" RJ pulled out of Noah's grasp and looked at something off to the side. His eyes narrowed and he looked back up into Noah's eyes. "I'm leaving you. You can have the loft and the internship at Spencer. You can have everything in here. I don't care. But you can't have me. Not anymore. I hope she was worth it."

Then RJ stormed out of the loft. Noah wanted to chase after him, ask him what he was talking about, but his feet didn't want to work. He couldn't move. How did RJ find out about the elevator thing? How did he not know that Noah had turned Eden away? He had chosen him!

By the time Noah was able to unstick his feet from the floor and give chase, the elevator doors were already sliding shut. It had already started descending and wouldn't change course, no matter how many times Noah pounded on the button. He ran back into the loft and grabbed his phone.

It rang twice before going to voicemail. Noah hanged up and called again, but it went straight to voicemail the second time. He left a message begging RJ to call him, swearing up and down that Eden wasn't an issue. Then he dropped his phone.

Maya's coat was on the bed and her shoes were on the floor next to it. Noah had never... He hadn't told RJ that Maya was staying with them. His boyfriend didn't know about what happened with Eden. All RJ knew was that he came home to Noah in alone in the loft with a woman who was in the shower. There was a way to fix it: there was the truth.

Noah went back to the elevator. RJ didn't drive. He would have to call a cab, which meant there might still be time to catch him in the lobby. If he caught RJ in time, he could explain everything.

But when the elevator opened, Noah gasped. No matter how many times he blinked, Eden was still there.

Then she pulled him into the elevator and kissed him. The door closed and Noah never even felt the needle go into in his neck.

B&B

"HOW DARE YOU?!" Layla yelled, throwing open the door to Ridge’s office. She slammed the door behind her and stared down both Ridge and Caroline. She hadn't seen them the day before: Ridge had hid in his office and Caroline hadn't come into Forrester at all. And Rick was supposed to be backing her up, but he begged off at the last second to make a phone call. Layla was facing them alone. It was just as well. "Who the hell do you two think you are?"

Caroline looked at Ridge. "Can you translate that for me? I don't speak Ebonics."

It took everything Layla had to not slap Caroline. After the headlines, after being publicly shamed, she hadn't changed at all. It wasn't exactly a surprise. These were the people who had outed Maya just to be petty.

"Let me put it into basic white bitch words," Layla spat. "Like, oh my god! I can't even with you two outing Maya! Where is my pumpkin spice latte? I really can't!"

"That's racist!" Caroline whined to Layla. "Just because I'm white, that doesn't mean I like pumpkin."

"What do you want, Layla?" Ridge asked before he scraped out the last spoonful of a tub of butter and sucked the spoon clean.

"I want you to explain to me why you thought it was okay to out Maya. How horrible can you two be?"

"What makes you think we outed her? I mean, Melissa had all kinds of enemies. Don't go accusing people of things when you have no proof, Leslie." Caroline sat on Ridge's desk and stared Layla down. "Besides, while I may hate Morganna, I would never out her. I grew up with two moms in New York. I know how cruel the world can be to people who are different."

"And you?" Layla looked to Ridge. She didn't want to believe it, but Caroline seemed sincere. She may have been a racist cunt, but Caroline did have a point about her two moms. It wasn't like she was Layla’s old friend Oliver, who had had a super conservative upbringing.

"How would I have even found out?" Ridge asked with a shrug. "Why would I even bother with Maya? I spent all day yesterday trying to undo everything RJ did."

Layla blinked and took a step back. RJ? What had RJ done? He had volunteered to take the fall if anyone got to close to figuring out who was really behind the tape leaking, but surely he wouldn't...

"What about RJ?"

"You didn't know?" Ridge asked Layla. He laughed, but his heart wasn't in it. "RJ leaked the tape. He's the one who did this to Forrester."

"He did?" Caroline gasped, drawing Layla's attention. "Why would RJ do that to us? Why wouldn't you tell me?"

Stepping back, Layla listened to what Ridge was saying but needed to be able to leave at a moment's notice. Rick needed to know what his brother was doing.

"I didn't know how to tell you. Yesterday, when I went to see RJ, he confessed to doing it. That snow globe he gave me was bugged." Ridge was looking at Caroline and Caroline looked ready to cry. Neither one was paying attention Layla.

"So the apology... Everything he said was a lie?" Caroline looked heartbroken and Layla started to question if they had done the right thing, bringing RJ into the fold. They could have done it without him.

"I'm so sorry, Caroline. RJ isn't himself. He started throwing things and he even attacked Taylor! We tried to calm him down, but he fled out into the street. My son isn't well. And yesterday, he even came here to Forrester."

Layla blinked and started listening even more intently to what Ridge was saying.

"Why was he here? Ridge, what did RJ do? What did we do to him?" Caroline sounded scared. She looked hurt and terrified and Layla felt her anger towards them begin to dwindle. Ridge and Caroline were horrible people, but they were still people. In the rush to get them out of Forrester, she had forgotten that.

“We don’t know why he came here.” Ridge grunted and retrieved a box of Slim Jims from a nearby filing cabinet. "We think he's upset because of Katie. He and Katie are really close. Or they were when I was with her. I had made him a lot of promises after Katie and I got engaged."

"And he blames me for breaking you two up?"

"I don't know what he's thinking, Caroline. The things he said to me and Taylor, the things he told Steffy yesterday when he was here at Forrester... It sounds like things are becoming too much for him. I don't thinks he's in a good place with Noah, either. RJ isn't well, and if we don't get him some help, I'm afraid he might really hurt somebody. If only Taylor hadn't gotten that call about some emergency patient."

That was all Layla needed to hear. They hadn't just made a mistake involving RJ in the plan. It was a colossal error. Layla didn't know the kid that well, and to hear Rick talk they were little more than strangers. She had to find Rick. They had to find some way to figure out how to help RJ. If he cracked, if he hurt himself because of what she had asked him to do, Layla would never forgive herself.

B&B

Courtney brushed her hair and watched Noah as he slept. Bill Spencer had ordered her to seduce Noah, but she knew it wouldn't work. She didn't even try.

The drug she had used would keep him asleep for a while longer, and when he woke up he would remember nothing. Victor had assured her it wouldn't show up in a toxicology report if he went to the hospital.

Setting the brush on the nightstand, Courtney climbed into the bed and held Noah. She looked to the refrigerator in her apartment and smiled. Her future child with Noah was stored safely in the freezer compartment until she could get back to Dr. Fascinella’s office and have it inseminated. Of course, she would need to collect a second sample before Noah woke up, just in case, but she had followed the procedures for the first perfectly.

Giggling, Courtney climbed on top of Noah and kissed him. Soon enough, he would realize that he was hers, even if he thought she was that twit Eden. They would raise their child together. They would be a family, and RJ Logan would out of the picture for good.

B&B

The plane had arrived late, and that made Taylor even more paranoid. The clinic had assured her that they were secure when the patient was checked in, and she had believed them. Crichton-Clark had a reputation for being the best in the business. So how had Taylor's patient escaped?

She didn't know what she would do when she arrived at the clinic. The woman wasn't even officially admitted. Taylor paid under the table to make sure there was no paper trail. If anyone found out...

Victor Newman had found out. But Taylor had kept quiet about who Eden Baldwin really was, so she really didn't believe he had anything to do the escape. Why would he turn that madwoman loose when Taylor was doing exactly what he wanted? No. Somebody else had to be involved, but Taylor didn't know who. All she knew for sure was that, unless her patient was recovered, everyone would be in a lot of danger.

B&B

"Can I stay with you? Just for tonight. I'll find somewhere more permanent tomorrow," RJ asked, certain he looked as lost and confused as he felt. He made sure to work it, turning on the puppy dog eyes and sticking out his lower lip so he looked his most pathetic.

"You can always stay with us, RJ. You're family. But what's going on? Is everything okay at home? Are you and Noah fighting?" Katie asked, welcoming him into the mansion.

RJ bit his lip and stepped inside. "Things aren't great, but I'm exhausted. I just wanna go to bed. Can we talk in the morning?"

"Of course, Sweetie," she assured him, hugging her nephew and stroking the back of his head. "Do you remember where the guest room is?"

"The room I stayed in whenever I was on break from school?" RJ asked after he pulled away. Katie nodded.

Once upon a time, it hadn't been a guest room. It had been his room. Ridge had robbed him of that, just as he had so many other things. RJ blinked and forced himself to smile.

"Yeah. I know where it is. Thanks, Aunt Katie."

"Any time, RJ."

He began to walk away, up the stairs and to the room that was no longer his in a place he could no longer call home, when Katie called his name. He stopped and turned back to look at her.

"You know I love you, right?" she asked, smiling up at him but still looking concerned. "Bill does, too, even though he would never say it."

Feeling something resembling happiness, RJ nodded and gave a real smile. "Yeah, I know. I love you, too, Aunt Katie. And Bill can be cool sometimes, I guess."

"Get some rest, RJ. We'll talk in the morning."

B&B

"I'm glad you were able to start tonight. The last nurse we had just quit out of the blue for no reason," Quinn Fuller said as she gave her son's new caretaker a tour of the beach house. "Wyatt's father wants someone who can keep an eye on our son at all times. I was doing that, but after Ivy Forrester left Forrester Creations to be a terrorist or whatever, they hired me back and I've about used up all of my vacation and personal days."

"Don't worry, Miss Fuller. I've been a nurse a long time. I know how to take care of just about anything."

"That's what your resume said. It practically glowed! You were an RN at Genoa City Memorial Hospital all those years. You must have seen some crazy stuff."

The woman stopped walking and kind of stared off into space. "I have... 'Crazy' doesn't come close to everything I've seen. Between stints at Memorial, I actually spent some time here in Los Angeles. I'm sure nobody remembers me, though."

"Well, let me be the first to welcome you back to LA, Ms. Harris."

"Just Brenda will do," the nurse offered with a wicked smile. Quinn knew right then that Brenda Harris was the perfect person to care for her son.


	13. Chapter 13

"RJ," Bill said to his nephew with a nod as he sat down for breakfast. RJ looked up from the pancakes the cook had made and nodded back a greeting.

"They're chocolate chip," RJ told Bill, pointing at the pancakes with his fork. He didn't know what else to say. While Bill hadn't said or done anything to indicate otherwise, RJ got the sense that his uncle didn't want him around. He probably knew that RJ was the one who had ruined Caroline in the press. Thankfully, Bill was probably the only person alive who hated Ridge more than RJ himself, so there was a chance he didn’t know.

"Okay." Bill grabbed the bottle of syrup, grumbled about it not being hot, and poured it over his pancakes. Then he looked back to RJ. "So, why are you in my house?"

"Bill!" Katie warned from her seat next to Will. RJ's cousin was being fussy and not wanting to eat his breakfast.

Setting down the syrup, Bill threw up his hands. "What? Am I not allowed to take an interest in my nephew?"

"You could be nice about it," Katie sighed, shaking her head and trying to get Will to eat.

"It's fine. He's just being Bill," RJ assured his aunt. He turned back to his uncle and took a deep breath. "Things are okay if you ignore the fact that Noah is cheating on me."

A look crossed Bill's face that RJ couldn't read, but he heard the sound of Katie dropping Will's fork.

"Oh, RJ, I'm so sorry. Do you want to talk about it?" Katie asked, picking the fork back up and resuming her quest to feed her son.

RJ looked at Bill and shook his head. "I think I'll wait until Bill goes to work, Aunt Katie. No offence meant."

"None taken. I really don't care." Bill shrugged and began digging into his pancakes. RJ looked at Katie, and she just looked back at him.

B&B

"Where were you yesterday, Rick? You vanished." Layla closed the door to his office and sat in the chair in front of his desk. "We need to talk."

"I was dealing with the Maya situation. I spent all night having her things removed from the mansion."

Layla didn't quite believe him. "And that's why you didn't answer the phone? Rick, have you seen the Eye on Fashion website?"

"I've been a little busy this morning. This company is dealing with not one, but two scandals. That's not quite what we had planned, but sales for Ridge and Caroline's last collection are falling well below what I had anticipated. And yours are holding steady. This is perfect."

"Rick, Listen to me. RJ has been outed as the source of the leak." Layla was bothered when Rick barely reacted.

He just shrugged and laughed. "Isn't that kind of what he wanted? It takes all the internal pressure off of me and you, and RJ can be the either the hero who outed a couple of racist bigots or the villain who tried to destroy his family's legacy. It all depends on what he says to the press.

"And just what did my little brother say?" Rick asked, playing with his pink and green sequined tie.

"Nothing, Rick. RJ hasn't spoken to the press. Or anybody. He's vanished, just like Maya. He won't answer his phone. Maya won't answer hers. I'm worried that we may have bitten off more than we can chew with this."

Then Rick laughed again. "Layla, look at us. Me and you? We're fine. Everyone else is rolling around in the shit like a bunch of flea-ridden dogs, but we're clean and clear and smell like roses. Nobody knows that we had anything to do with this. So, as far as I'm concerned, RJ got what he wanted and Maya got what she deserved. Now we just have to make sure we don't let this distract us from the reason any of this happened: Ridge and Caroline still haven't resigned."

"Is that really all you care about, Rick? You don't care about the people who were caught in the crossfire of this war between you and your brother?"

Rick stopped laughing and stared right at Layla. "Listen to me: there have been no innocents hurt in this. You and Maya brought my brother into this. In fact, you two were the ones who brought it to me. So if things aren’t going how you wanted, then you only have yourself to blame."

B&B

"Do you know how hard it was to sit at the same table as him and not throttle the brat?" Bill asked Steffy. "He put my niece through hell, and then he thinks he can stay in my house? RJ is lucky Katie was there."

"So, that's where he's been hiding: he wasn't at his loft the other day. His boyfriend had no idea where he was. My brother has a nasty habit of wrecking things and then disappearing."

"No, Steffy, he showed up last night. Late last night. We don’t know what he did yesterday. And then this morning, he's talking about Noah cheating on him."

Steffy laughed. "Seriously? I met Noah. He's an idiot. I don't even know why RJ wants him, let alone why anyone else would."

Then Bill chuckled. "You don't know about Eden, do you?"

"What is an Eden? Is that one of those gay clubs or something? Liam and I used to go to drag shows, but I don't remember any place called ‘Eden’."

Shaking his head, Bill pulled out his phone. "Not a place. Eden is a person: she's Noah's ex-girlfriend. I guess they were serious. Serious enough that when Eden came to town, Noah felt the need to hide it from RJ."

"How do you know about Noah Newman's love life? Bill?" Steffy took his phone and looked at the picture he had pulled up. "Is this Eden? She's so... This is one plain woman."

"Eden is my intern. I didn't know she was connected to Noah until a couple weeks ago," Bill lied. He could tell Steffy didn't believe him. It didn't really matter. She would never be able to guess the truth. "RJ had me and Katie over for dinner not long ago. Eden had some contracts for me, so I had her deliver them to his place. And it came out Noah already knew she was in town, and Noah never told RJ. Your brother didn't take it well."

"So, Noah has secrets of his own, and he and RJ aren't as solid as I'd been led to believe." Steffy handed Bill back his phone and threw her hair over her shoulder. "I can use that."

"Steffy, what are you planning?"

"You concentrate on L&M, Bill. You ruin my brother professionally. I'll do it personally. Because if a nothing like this Eden can cause this much trouble for RJ, then imagine what I can do. Noah Newman is about to meet the woman of his dreams."

B&B

"Where were you?" Maya asked as Noah stumbled into the loft. He looked hungover, but she couldn't smell anything on him except failed antiperspirant. She quickly shut the door before anyone could see her and helped him to the sofa. "I'll go get you some coffee."

"Did RJ come back?" Noah asked, sounding very much like someone who felt guilty as hell. It was a feeling Maya knew well.

She answered him while pouring his coffee. "RJ never showed up."

"He did," Noah protested while taking the hot mug from Maya. She didn't join him on the sofa, instead opting to sit on the coffee table.

"When? I've been here all day. Where were you, Noah? What happened with you and RJ?"

"You did." Noah looked at Maya and she saw the pain in his eyes. That didn't change the fact that she had no idea what he was talking about. "Last night, when you were in the shower, RJ came back. He was a mess. Something is going on with him, all this stuff with his dad. He broke down the second he walked into the loft."

Nodding, Maya wondered just what she could have done to RJ. She didn't see the need to tell Noah that she had colluded with RJ on outing Ridge and Caroline. She didn't see the need to say anything because listening to Noah kept her mind off of her own problems.

"Do you know about Eden?" Noah asked, and Maya told him she didn't. "Of course you don't. Not a whole lot of people do. Or did. But Eden was my ex. And she's made RJ really insecure. Not without reason. But yesterday, you were in the shower and RJ came home and he saw your coat and your shoes and thought you were her.

"He was gone before I could explain anything."

"So you were out all night and all day looking for him? Liam called your cell. I don't know why, because I didn't answer. Nobody can know I'm here."

"And nobody does. I swear. Not even RJ. And I did leave to find him. I really did."

"But?" Maya knew something was coming. Something big.

Noah sighed and took a drink of his coffee, but his hands were shaking the entire time. Maya took the cup before he spilled it on himself.

"I woke up in Eden's bed. She has a place in this building. How, I don't know. She must have just moved in, but the last thing I remember is going out to get RJ and then waking up with her. And I slept with her, Maya. I slept with Eden and I don't remember it and everything my boyfriend was worried about came true."

"You're sure you had sex with her? Because you told me you don't remember anything. Or did you fuck this Eden after you woke up?" Maya really appreciated having something to do other than think about how much Rick must hate her.

"There are ways you can tell that stuff, Maya. Surely you remember," Noah told her. Then he slapped his hand over his mouth and his bloodshot eyes widened. "Oh my god. I'm so sorry."

She smiled even though his words had hurt. He didn't mean it. A lot of people were probably saying things that were a lot worse and not even thinking about apologizing.

"Thank you," she said quietly. Then Maya nodded. "But yes, I do remember some things. I wish I didn't, but I wish for a lot of things that won't come true."

Maya's manicured nails bit into her palm as she thought of Rick and the ring he had put on her finger. She had left that ring on his nightstand.

Noah groaned. "Why am I even talking about me? You're having it so much worse than I am. My god, I'm a selfish ass."

"You are," Maya agreed, laying a hand on Noah's knee, "but there's no point in talking about me. There's nothing anybody can do. But you and RJ may still have the chance that Rick and I don't."

"He took it that badly?" Noah asked, looking at Maya. The pity on his face made her hate herself: not because of who she was, but because she had thought hiding it would protect her.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I woke up before he did. I checked my work email on my phone while he was still in bed and I saw all kinds of things that I can't repeat. The last time I spoke to him, he didn't know."

"Maybe he's okay with it. I know you told me that you knew he wouldn't be, but maybe he's going out of his mind worried about you the same way I'm worried about RJ."

As much as she appreciated what Noah was trying to do, Maya knew better. Noah didn't know Rick. She doubted he had even met Rick: the only times she ever saw Noah was when he was visiting RJ at L&M.

"Yeah," she said with a nod, not believing a word she was about to say. "Maybe he is."

B&B

"You're certain Noah cheated on you?" Katie asked RJ after Will had been put down for his nap.

RJ nodded and sighed. "There was a woman's coat on our bed and the shower was running. He wasn't in it, so Eden had to be."

"Eden, from the dinner? Noah's ex-girlfriend?" Katie used one hand to squeeze her nephew's knee and the other to rub his arm. "Honey, I'm so sorry."

"The worst part of it? He acted like she wasn't even there," RJ said grimly, forcing out a single laugh that he didn't feel. "I walked in the door feeling like shit and he just held me and acted like he hadn't cheated, too."

When Katie let go of RJ's hand, he felt what was left of his already broken heart shatter. He had hoped she wouldn't judge him. His aunt was the only person who had never made him feel bad. She was the only person who was always in his corner. And he was afraid he was going to lose that.

"You... You cheated on Noah?" Katie asked, her voice as uncertain as his feelings. "Oh, RJ."

When he spoke, RJ was afraid he would devolve into unintelligible sobs, but his voice was so strong and smooth that neither the anger nor the despair he was feeling leaked out.

"I spent all of yesterday with another man. I had slept at his apartment, in his bed, the night before. And it felt good. It felt great, just being with someone where I didn't have to worry about lies or having him sneak around behind my back because we both wanted the same thing. All I feel when I'm around Noah anymore is angry."

"Are you mad at him or yourself?" Katie took RJ's hand again. She felt so warm, so comforting. He was glad that he hadn't lost her.

"Both? I'm definitely not proud of what I did, but I don't regret it, either. Because when I went home yesterday, before I came here, I was going to tell Noah to leave. I was going to tell him it was over and then I saw his face and it all changed.

"I just wanted him to forgive me for what I had done. For those few seconds, when he held me, I was afraid of losing him. And then I saw Eden's coat and I knew that I already had. Before he slept with her, before I cheated, he had already kissed her, Aunt Katie. It's all so messed up."

Katie used her free hand to pull her nephew into a hug. All RJ wanted to do was break down in her arms. He felt safe there, in her embrace, but he knew it wouldn't last forever. And while he tried to cry, nothing came out.

"Do you want to stay with Noah?" Katie kissed RJ's forehead and began rocking him as if he were a child. He didn't hate it. "I'm not asking if you deserve him or if he'll take you back or anything else. I just want to know if you still want him."

"I do," RJ whispered fearfully. "I still love him."

"Then you should go home to him, RJ. Try to work things out. If there's anything left to save, I believe you'll only find it together. And if there's not, you can always come back here."

RJ pulled out of his aunt's embrace. As much as he didn't want to admit it, she was wrong. There was no way for him to work things out with Noah. He knew how things would go: Noah would eventually leave him for Eden, just like he had in Paris. When they got back together, RJ knew he was the second choice. Loving Noah had never been enough to keep him.

Maya had once told him to forgive mistakes, but she also told him to remember his self-worth.

"I've been wearing the same thing for three days," RJ noted as he stood up and brushed invisible dust from his pants. "My hair is tragic and I need to shave."

"You're going to see him?" Katie asked, rising to her feet. "Do you want me to go with you?"

Shaking his head, RJ pulled out his phone. He knew what he was about to do would hurt a lot of people, but it needed to be done. It was all so tiresome.

"I need to do this alone. Can you have a driver take me to the Fenmore's on Rodeo and drop me off? I'll be fine from there."

"Sure thing, Honey. I hope everything works out."

"Me, too," RJ said as he unlocked his phone. He looked back up to his aunt and gave her the closest thing to a sincere smile that he could muster. "Goodbye, Aunt Katie."

"Bye, RJ." They hugged one final time, then she called for a driver while he walked into the foyer and scrolled through his contacts. The phone was already dialing as he strolled outside to wait for the car to be pulled around.

"RJ? Are you okay?" The man asked. "I've been worried about you. Things are crazy here like you wouldn't believe."

"Everything’s fine," RJ answered after making sure the front door was closed. He closed his eyes and breathed out through his nose. "Thad, what time are you off today? I know things are nuts at L&M right now, but I think that us having a night out on the town will be the perfect fix for all of our problems.”


	14. Chapter 14

"It looks like things are officially over." Noah sighed and set the tablet on the table. He didn't even get past the headline. Maya picked the device up and began reading the article.

"Up-and-coming fashion designer and Forrester Creations heir RJ Logan has been spotted out on the town, getting hot and heavy with someone who is most definitely not his oft-rumoured boyfriend Noah Newman..." Maya read before scrolling further down. "Damn, Noah. I'm sorry. Welcome to Dumpsville, population us."

"How am I supposed to feel about this? I proved him right: I slept with Eden. There's a voice in my head telling me I'm not allowed to get mad, but I am." Noah waited for the sound of his toast popping, but it didn't come.

"We're human. When I left Rick for Carter, and he ended up marrying Caroline, it still hurt. A lot of things still hurt."

Noah watched as she poked at her fruit salad. RJ didn't like eating only healthy food. RJ also didn't like Noah.

"I wonder when he's going to make me leave. He owns this loft, you know. Or he owns the lease. I don't know how it works because he always paid the bills. RJ could call me right now and say that we have to leave." Noah looked at his phone, sitting on the nightstand and charging, and hoped that RJ would call, but he knew he wouldn't.

"Everything will be fine. If RJ throws us out, it’s not like you can’t afford to stay somewhere else. Oh, and I called Brooke today and we talked. They're letting me take a hiatus from work, and you said Liam wasn't mad about you missing work yesterday." Maya speared a piece of cantaloupe with her fork and looked at it. "Eventually, I'll go back to work. It's not like I'm the only trans model at L&M. Hell, they even pointed that out in the statement they released to the press."

"But you are the one who is engaged to the CEO of a rival fashion house," Noah pointed out. The toaster popped and he stood up.

"Was," Maya corrected sadly. "When I talked to Brooke, I asked her about Rick. She said he never asked after me when they talked on the phone yesterday. He's done with me. I knew he would be. I told you."

"For what it's worth, you have me," Noah offered, sitting down and reaching for the butter dish. RJ refused to let tubs of margarine into the loft. Liam would scream about its chemical makeup and it gave everyone a headache, so the ban was just easier. "And Liam told me to take the week off. I guess Bill is going nuts at Spencer."

"Bill goes nuts all the time," Maya sighed. "He's most likely the one who outed me. You know that, right?"

"He did? But how? Why aren't you doing something about it?" Noah stopped buttering his toast and stared at Maya. "You can't just let him get away with it!"

"My mom isn't going to slam Bill's face into a wall," Maya chuckled. As much as he didn't want to, Noah smiled. "Bill has known for a while. Part of the reason I left Rick that first time... He blackmailed me into it. I can't blame him for everything, because there were a million other reasons I left Rick, but Bill was still one."

"How did he even find out? And why did he wait so long to out you?" Noah shifted his eyes away from Maya and back to his toast. "Sorry if I'm prying."

"You are, but it's okay. I need to tell someone. I'll go insane if I don't." Maya bit the cantaloupe off the fork and chewed. She and Noah sat in silence. The only sounds were her chewing and the reluctant scraping of his butter knife against the toast.

"So, what are you gonna do about Bill?" Noah finally asked.

"Nothing," she answered, slowly shaking her head. "What can I do? Everyone already knows Bill is an ass, but it's not like he lied. And it's not like my operations were exactly legal. Going after him would just get me in more trouble."

"Your surgeries were illegal?" Noah didn't understand how that worked. "This isn't like buying collagen injections off eBay."

"My boyfriend at the time, Jesse, he paid for my surgeries. He knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a doctor who does all kinds of black market plastic surgery. Fascinella, if I remember correctly. The guy runs a clinic in Mexico. He mostly gives drug lords new identities when they need to disappear. Jesse had plenty of money: it didn't matter that it was dirty. Hell, that probably made it more appealing."

"That actually makes more sense than I was expecting. I hadn't even considered the cost of the surgeries," Noah mused. "But how would Bill know about this Fascinella guy? You said yourself that he runs an illegal Mexican clinic."

"Because he's rich and used his money and influence to dig into my background?" Maya guessed. "When Rick and Caroline split up, Bill considered me an afterthought. Ridge was the main threat to his niece."

"Until the tape leaked."

Maya nodded. She looked away from Noah for just a second, but he found it odd. "That tape changed everything for everyone. I wish I had never..."

"Never what?" Noah felt his stomach begin to knot and he hadn't even eaten anything.

"RJ didn't leak the tape, Noah. Not alone. He planted the bug, that much is true, but it was originally my plan. We were just looking to get rid of Caroline and Ridge. Get them out of Forrester and out of everyone's lives." Maya had stopped looking at Noah, but he believed every word she was telling him. "Rick and Layla were in on it, too. We never... Nobody thought RJ was going to start taking credit the day it happened, or that I would be outed.

"Everything happening to everybody is my fault. I should've just grown a thicker skin. Because of me, L&M is having a PR nightmare and everyone knows I'm trans and the worst part is that it didn't even work! Ridge and Caroline are refusing to leave Forrester, even though sales of their newest line are publicly flat lining."

"It's not your fault," Noah assured Maya, dropping his food and reaching across the table to hold her hand. She looked up at him and he could tell she was struggling not to cry. "You didn't make Ridge and Caroline say those things. RJ chose to do everything he's done. Bill Spencer has been holding this over your head for who knows how long. You made a not wise decision, but you didn't make everyone else's choices. We all did that."

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Maya’s voce was small and fragile. "Why are you comforting me when you're hurting, too?"

"Because I've been through this before. RJ and I have never been solid. And he told me that when his first line debuted, you were the one who stood by him while I was at the airport picking up his sister. So it's... I don't know. But you're a good person, Maya. And I don't know too many of them."

Through her tears, Maya smiled. Noah squeezed her hand and smiled back.

B&B

RJ didn't know how to act. He hadn't wanted to come into work. All he wanted to do was spend the day in Thad's bed, listening to the salsa music on the radio and wait for the man to come home, but the voicemail from Amber was so urgent that he couldn't justify not coming.

"Amber and I have been talking..." Brooke said with an audible sigh and a glance to RJ's design partner. "We know you leaked the tape of Ridge and Caroline. Everyone knows: it’s the cover story on the Eye on Fashion website and who knows how many others. And you haven't been coming into work again. If it were just because of the tape, I might have looked the other way, but there's the Maya stuff, too. We needed you here and you weren’t."

Blinking, RJ looked from his mother to his best friend. "What Maya stuff?"

"You don't know? How can you not know?" Brooke's mouth hung open, so Amber finished her thought.

"Maya is a tranny."

"That's not an appropriate word to use, Amber. I should know because Viz yelled at me yesterday for using it," Brooke told her business partner. Then she turned back to her son. "Maya requested a leave of absence this morning, and I thought it best we give it to her."

"And we're giving you one, too," Amber told RJ.

"You're firing me? From the company I cofounded?" RJ found himself unable to blink or focus on just one woman. He kept looking from Amber to Brooke and back again. "I miss a couple days and I'm gone? This company wouldn't be anything without my designs. This company wouldn't exist at all if it weren't for me and Julian! And you can't fire me, Mother, because of the clause in your contract. I'm in the creative department. You have no say!"

"But I do," Amber said, reaching out to RJ. He pulled away. "You keep disappearing and causing scandals and I love you, but I have a company to think about."

"You're the one betraying me?! Amber, I'm the one who insisted that clause went into my mom's contract so she couldn't fire you! And in return, you're firing me! What the hell?" RJ screamed, standing up and kicking his chair to the floor. "If I hadn't brought you to Julian, you'd still be in that trailer park with your mom, waiting to see Rosie every other weekend!"

"You're not being fired!" Brooke yelled, slamming her hands on her desk. "RJ, we all know what you’ve done. You're a great asset to L&M, but we can't let you do whatever you want. We're just putting you on leave: giving you a break to calm down and get your life together. You'll still get your salary. We'll still use your designs: Amber can finish the necessary alterations. But we're all worried about you. You're all over the blogs. You’ve become a mess."

"We know you leaked the Forrester tape. We know you spent all night partying with Thad, who did come into work on time. RJ, what happened with Noah?" Amber asked, looking up at her friend. "What's going on with you?"

RJ cracked his neck. "Yeah. No. You want to put me on administrative leave? That's fine. But I will be damned if I discuss my personal life with you two. Especially not Thad. Not after this. Mom, this is something I would have expected from Dad. You're supposed to be better than this. You're supposed to be better than him!"

Kicking his downed chair again, RJ stubbed his toe and began jumping up and down on his good foot. When the pain subsided enough for him to stand on it, he glared at both women then stormed out of the office.

B&B

"Wyatt is doing well with his physical therapy," Brenda told Quinn, who smiled and nodded.

"My son is super determined to get past this." Quinn poured a glass of lemonade and offered it to the nurse, who graciously accepted. "The doctors say he'll be in physical therapy for a while, but he should be able to walk with crutches soon!"

"I'm glad he's doing so well physically. It helps that he was so active before the accident, but I don't think he's handling it well mentally."

"Are you calling my son crazy?" Quinn's eyes narrowed into slits. "I'm not fond of that word."

Brenda shook her head. "Not at all, Miss Fuller. It's just... I've been doing this for a while. I can recognize PTSD. He's trying to keep it hidden, but he's not dealt with his trauma. The woman who hit him... I read that she got off?"

"Suspended sentence," Quinn hissed, the words slithering out of her mouth like a snake's tongue. "The bitch never had to serve a single day for putting my son in that wheelchair."

"Has he been able to talk to her?" Brenda took a drink of her lemonade and watched Quinn. "What even was her name?"

"Taylor Hayes, and she hasn't. Not even an apology. Just a press release and words delivered by her lawyer. I won't let her anywhere near Wyatt. I won't!" Quinn threw the lemonade pitcher against the wall. She thought of beheading Taylor and started breathing heavily.

Brenda put a calming hand on Quinn's shoulder. "Miss Fuller, we need to let Wyatt make that decision. If he never sees this Taylor, he can't get closure. He might never be able to move on from his accident. Not in his head or his heart."

"What are you saying, Brenda?"

"I'm saying Wyatt needs to talk to Taylor. He needs the chance to ask her questions, or yell at her. Wyatt needs to deal with this demon face-to-face."

Quinn snorted. "That's a more accurate description than you realize, Brenda."

B&B

"Thanks for letting me stay with you. I could have gotten a hotel room, but you offer better perks than room service," RJ told Thad when a dirty grin. Then he looked at the sink full of even dirtier dishes. "Where is your dishwasher?"

"Does it look like I have room here for a dishwasher?" Thad held his hand out, showing off just how tiny his apartment was. "Where would I keep it?"

"No offense, but you better not expect me to be domestic. I'm terrible at that stuff. Before Noah moved into the loft, I had a cleaning service come in three times a week. Then he took over cleaning because that's how rich people live in Genoa City, I guess. God, I hate that slum town."

Thad blinked at RJ, disbelief on his face. "I'm from Genoa City."

"And, lucky you, it doesn't show. You dress like a notmal person, not some clearance rack refugee."

"You have purple hair. You really can't comment on anyone else's appearance."

"Lavender," RJ corrected, twirling to show off his outfit. "And as you can see, I can afford to dress like someone who gives a shit about their appearance. All the people I met in Genoa City were as tacky as Steffy's cheek injections."

"Who is Steffy?" Thad looked confused.

RJ spun into Thad's arms, and the other man caught him, but they fell back onto the bed. Laughing, RJ kissed his paramour. "You don't know Steffy Forrester? You really don't have a background in fashion.

"Steffy is my evil older sister. She was always my dad's favourite, next to my other sister Phoebe, but she died before I really got to know her. The thing about Parisian boarding schools is that you don't really get to know your family all that well because you’re at a boarding school in Paris and they aren’t."

"What does this have to do with anything?" Thad ran his finger along RJ's jawline.

"Being involved with me is going to be complicated. Whether we're serious or just fooling around, everyone I know is going to have an opinion and you're going to hear it. And you're probably going to end up having sex with my mom at some point, too."

"Um... I'm gay. Your mom knows that."

"Doesn't matter. It's a law somewhere. Just remember to use protection. I don't know if she's started menopause yet." RJ chuckled and sat up, straddling Thad. "But enough about her. What are we? Are we dating? Fuck buddies? Temporary roommates with benefits? I like words. Labels."

"What do you want us to be?"

That was a question that RJ couldn't answer. He shook the nagging thoughts out of his head and ran his hands over Thad's torso. Even through the shirt, he could feel the solid muscle. Leaning down, RJ kissed the man. Both smiled.

"I need to go," RJ told the man. Reluctantly, he climbed off Thad and blew his breath upward to dislodge his bangs from his forehead. It didn't work, so he reached up and brushed them away. "There are some things at the loft that I need to get."

"What kind of things? Clothes? Because you brought three shopping bags full of them. And I get paid in a couple of days, so food won't be an issue."

"Work stuff. My portfolio is still there, and I may be on leave, but I can't just leave it lying around. Everything else can be burned for all I care."

"Do you need a ride?"

For a moment, RJ wanted to accept the offer. He wanted to burst into the loft with Thad on his arm and rub it in Noah's face that the guy he had cheated with so much hotter than the woman with whom Noah had cheated. He wanted to be the one to make someone cry, instead of constantly having breakdowns mid-argument.

"No." He declined. As angry as he was, RJ really didn't want to see his ex-boyfriend hurting. Things were going to be awkward enough with just RJ there. Thad would only bring unnecessary drama. "I'll take a cab."

B&B

There was a knock at the door and Maya went into a panic.

"Go hide in the closet," Noah suggested. "I'll try to get rid of whoever it is."

"Thank you," Maya told him, nodding and running. She opened the closet door, then gave Noah a knowing look. "And you had better not make a closet joke. I will end you."

Noah chuckled. RJ had made the same threat once upon a time. It was a good memory: the only things he and RJ shared now were memories.

"Hi." Noah wasn't happy to see Steffy Forrester. The last time he had spoken to her, the only time, really, she had been less than pleasant company. "RJ isn't here. I think he's moving out, actually."

"I'm not here about RJ." Even though Noah hadn't invited her into the loft, Steffy pushed her way past him and walked inside. "I'm here to see you, Noah. To apologize."

"Apologize? To me?"

She nodded and batted her eyes at him. "I was mad at my brother and I took it out on you. I'm sorry about that. I was a royal bitch to you, and you haven't yelled at me or insulted me. You're a good guy, Noah."

Thinking back to how he woke up in Eden's bed, Noah disagreed. "I'm not that great. Actually, I'm kinda awful."

"Quit trying to turn me on." It wasn't immediately clear if Steffy was teasing. "So, Noah, how did you and my brother meet?"

Looking off to the side, eyes lingering on the closet door, Noah tried to think of the best way to put it.

"I'm not sure we should be talking about that. RJ and I broke up. I mean, I did say before that he's moving out."

So you did." Steffy seemed to be thinking, then she grinned. It scared Noah a bit. "That should make this part easier."

Before he could even ask what Steffy was talking about, Noah found her tongue in his mouth and her hands groping his ass. He pushed her away and tried to find words that weren't coming.

"All I've been able to think about is you, Noah. You had to feel it: there’s something between us." Steffy stepped back up to him, hands on his chest. "Your heart is racing. You do feel it."

She kissed him again. It was less forceful than before, but she still maintained all control. Steffy reached under his shirt, running her nails along his back, and Noah didn't know what to do.

"Come with me." Steffy began walking backwards, one hand on Noah's neck and the other tugging at the front of his pants. She was still kissing him. Then she pushed him.

Noah fell back on the bed and his senses returned. This was wrong. This was RJ's sister. Maya was in the closet, listening to everything. He needed to end it.

"Stop," he said, looking up at her.

Ignoring him command, Steffy climbed on top of him and bent down for another kiss. Noah turned away. Then his heart stopped.

"No."

"I don't take no for an answer," Steffy laughed, trying to force Noah's face back towards her. She never saw it coming, but Noah did.

"Bitch, you had better get the hell off my man!" RJ yelled, running across the flat and grabbing Steffy by her long locks. He pulled as hard as he could, but instead of removing his sister, he just removed a handful of her hair. "I knew your ass was wearing a weave."

"They're extensions." Steffy looked down at Noah and smiled, then turned to her brother. "And they're expensive."

Then all hell broke loose.


	15. Chapter 15

"I'm gonna kill her!" RJ screamed, arms and legs flailing as he tried to break out of Noah's grip.

Steffy just laughed. She hadn't expected for her brother to show up, especially not when she had his boyfriend in bed and she was all but sitting on his face. The timing was perfect. Now she didn't even have to feign interest on Noah. There was no longer a need for seducing Noah and breaking RJ the same way he'd broken their father.

Karma was very much on Steffy's side.

"Would you calm down?!" Noah yelled while he struggled to keep RJ from freeing himself. "What are you even doing here, RJ?"

"I came to get some things. My portfolio is still here, for starters," RJ said, calming down slightly. Steffy cast her eyes around the loft until she saw what looked like a messenger bag on the floor, lying underneath the coffee table. "What is SHE doing here?"

With a smirk, Steffy twirled what remained of her hair. The brat was going to be the one paying her bill for the stylist: she would see to that. "I came to see Noah. I would have thought that was obvious."

"You can't have him! He's mine!" RJ screamed. Ignoring her brother, Steffy looked to Noah. There was something in his eyes that told her otherwise.

"Am I?" Noah asked calmly.

Then RJ deflated. His anger just left his body, and it seemed to take all of his energy with it. Steffy held back a snort.

"I..." RJ hung his head and Noah slowly released him.

"You dumped me. You were out all night with some other guy. It's all over the internet." Noah grabbed RJ's arm and Steffy watched what was going on with relish. She wished she had popcorn. "You said that I'm yours. Did you mean it? Do you want to try to work things out?"

"I thought I did, but then I walked in on you about to have sex with my sister! Eden is Eden. I always knew I would be second to her, but this bitch?" RJ whirled around and glared at his sister. "How the hell did that even happen?"

"It happened because I know what I want, RJ," Steffy taunted maliciously. "When I commit to something, I see it through to the end."

"I told her no," Noah claimed, RJ back to him. "I swear, I told her no."

"Was this before or after you climbed into bed with her?"

"He didn't fight me that hard," Steffy interjected, winking at Noah and enjoying RJ angrily stomping his little feet on the floor.

"DIE!" RJ screamed, pulling away from Noah and leaping at his sister. She stepped out of the way and he hit the floor.

She didn't even try to stifle the laughter. Steffy held her sides and knelt next to her brother and laughed at his pain. He had brought it all on himself. When RJ went after their father, when he went after her company, he had made a declaration of war. It was a war she would win, and he would realize that he was nowhere near being her equal.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Noah asked as he helped RJ up, then pulled him away from Steffy before he could try another useless attack. "Both of you! You're brother and sister, right? What happened to make you two act like this?"

"She's a narcissistic cunt with a superiority complex and no friends."

"He's a vicious little bitch with no sense of loyalty or respect."

Noah blinked and shrugged. "Well, okay, those are true, but still! I come from a messed up family, but it's nowhere near this insane. You two need to stop whatever is going on here. Now!"

"No." RJ looked up into Noah's eyes and Steffy felt all the heat leave the loft. "After everything that happened... I would have just been mad. I would have been hurt, but it was inevitable. Eventually I would have accepted you and Eden. But this whore only came after you to hurt me. And you let her! Do you hate me that much for leaving you?"

For a moment, just a flash, Steffy didn't see the enemy when she saw her brother: there was just a kid in a lot of pain. Then she reminded herself that he had done all of it to himself and any pity she might have had vanished.

"I don't hate you, RJ. I never will."

"You say that now." RJ's voice was quiet. It was hard for Steffy to hear him, so she cautiously walked a little closer. Neither man noticed her approach. "When I was away, when you were here with Eden, I..."

"I wasn't here with Eden. I told you I wouldn't," Noah protested, but RJ shushed him.

"The where doesn't matter, Noah. All that matters is that we aren't working. We haven't worked for a while. I don't think either one of us has been as invested in this as we wanted to be. If we were, you never would've gone to Genoa City back in March. I wouldn't have cheated on you with Thad."

All the heat returned at once, and it seemed to crash onto Noah Newman's shoulders.

"You cheated on me? When? WHY?!"

RJ looked guilty. He also looked scared. Steffy glanced at the messenger bag, then back to her brother. This was entertaining as hell.

"The day I leaked the tape, Noah. I was mad at my dad. I hated him so much, but I was also mad at you for kissing Eden. I... It happened. The entire time I was gone, I was with Thad."

Steffy had no clue who this Thad was. It seemed Noah didn't, either.

"Who is Thad?" Noah asked, his voice cracking. He reached out to RJ, then pulled away. "I told you I kissed Eden and that it was a mistake, RJ. You forgave me. I chose you. I chose YOU!"

"Then why did you sleep with her?" RJ asked, tears falling. Steffy saw her extensions lying on the floor and picked them up. She probably wouldn't be able to save them, but it was worth a try.

"When you came home, I hadn't slept with Eden."

Then a door opened and Steffy gasped, as did RJ. Maya Avant tossed her hair over her shoulder and walked to the assembled.

"You were hiding in my closet," RJ observed, momentarily stunned.

"Noah's been letting me hide here. He said you would be okay with it. When you came home yesterday, that was my coat you saw. I was the one in the shower. Noah hadn't slept with that Eden woman yet."

"Yet?" RJ's confusion faded away and the pain in his eyes returned. Steffy bit back another laugh. Her brother looked back to Noah and repeated himself. "Yet?"

"After you left yesterday, I ran into Eden, I guess. I don't remember anything. But you'd already said we were over."

"And that makes it okay?!" RJ yelled, stomping his feet and waving his hands in the air.

"You were already sleeping with another man! You just told me that!" Noah yelled back before storming away and to the big bay window.

"She's not getting away with this," RJ muttered, not looking at Steffy. He left the loft and Noah looked to the doorway.

Noah glanced at Maya and both were nervous.

"Would he hurt her?" Maya asked, looking as out-of-place as she sounded. "Noah?"

"He punched Taylor in the face."

"Who wouldn't?"

Steffy wanted to object, but she also wanted them to forget she was there. Her mission objective had changed.

"That's not the point, Maya," Noah claimed. "He's off the rails. We have to get to Eden before he does."

There was a moment of reluctance: Maya clearly didn't want to leave her sanctuary, but then she nodded at Noah and grabbed her purse. They both gave chase and neither bothered to tell Steffy to leave.

After a couple minutes of waiting, Steffy walked to the coffee table and retrieved the bag. There were a handful of cardboard tubes with plastic caps hanging out of it. It was obvious what they were, but Steffy opened one anyway. She smiled.

RJ had all but handed her the newest Logan & Moore collection, and with it he had also given her the one thing that was guaranteed to destroy him and his company once and for all.

B&B

RJ had been to Spencer Publications a few times when he was younger. His aunt had been the CEO, and she was engaged to his father, so they would sometimes visit her there when he was home from school, but he'd never made a habit of hanging out there. Not even after Liam had taken over the company.

It occurred to RJ that Liam never really invited him to his place. Liam was always either at the loft or too busy to do the social thing. He doubted that his friend would want him coming to his place of business after this visit, anyway.

"Hi," RJ said to the receptionist. "Can you tell me where Bill Spencer's office is? I'm his nephew, RJ."

"We're all aware of who you are," the young man said, not even bothering to look up. "Third floor."

"Nothing more specific?"

"Do you have an appointment?"

RJ glared at the cunty twink and then wandered off to the elevator. Eden might not even be at Bill's office anyway, but she was his personal slave so it was the most logical place to start. And they needed to talk. This wasn't his friend. This wasn't the person he had become so close to in Paris.

But he wasn't the same person he had been in Paris, either.

When he got off the elevator, RJ wandered for a couple minutes until he saw the most obnoxious looking door with a sword carved into it and knew he had found it. Angry, he threw it open. Both Bill and Eden were there. Bill didn't matter.

"What do you think you're doing?" Bill looked angry, but RJ ignored him. "This is my office."

"I know what you did." RJ walked into the office and slammed the door behind him. "God. You're a real piece of shit."

"What do you think I did?" Bill asked, standing up and trying to look intimidating.

Looking at his uncle, RJ sighed. "Shut up, Bill. This isn't about you. It's about her."

Eden tucked her hair behind her ears and also rose to her feet. "What about me, RJ?"

"You slept with Noah." RJ stepped up to Eden and stared into her eyes. There was no confusion to be found: she knew exactly what he was talking about. "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm the destination. You're the rest stop." Eden smiled and RJ wanted to slap her. "He came to me, RJ. He came to me. Noah kissed me, he made love to me. He loved me. You were just a hole he could put his dick in."

Then he did slap her. Bill laughed.

"You came to Los Angeles! You told me that you knew I was in love with Noah when we were all still in school, and that you didn't care. When did that change?"

Eden punched RJ back and he fell to the floor. She was a lot stronger than he had expected.

"It changed when I found out you two were sleeping together! We were supposed to be friends, RJ. You two were making out in the airport the same day I left for Chicago. Were you laughing about me? About how stupid Eden is for having no idea?"

RJ rubbed his jaw and saw Bill trying his best to stifle his laughter. Then he focused attention back on Eden. She was why he was there. She was the one who had ruined everything!

"No, Eden. We weren't sleeping together behind your back. We didn't get involved until after you had left Paris. I did nothing wrong! You were the one who came to Los Angeles and seduced my boyfriend!" RJ screamed while Eden chuckled.

Shaking her head, she looked down at him hatefully. "Why won't you admit it, RJ? Noah doesn't love you. I didn't do anything to Noah. He always initiated it. In fact, when we made love, he didn't even use a condom. I could be carrying his child right now. You could never."

Eyes narrowed, RJ watched as Eden touched her stomach. It wasn't true. Noah was the child of a sex addict: he always used protection. Always. Something wasn't adding up. Then RJ remembered Noah saying he didn't remember sleeping with Eden.

"You raped him."

Eden's face lost a little bit of colour and that was all the proof he needed. Noah hadn't cheated. The only cheater was RJ himself. But Eden was a rapist.

"What are you talking about?"

Closing his eyes, RJ thought over what Noah had told him. He had never lied to RJ. Never. The closest he had come was not telling RJ that Eden was in town, but he told him about the kiss when he didn’t have to. And the clothes he had seen in the loft were Maya's.

"He said he chose me. If Noah was still confused, he would have said so."

"If he chose you, then why did we make love? He doesn't want you, RJ."

RJ noticed that Bill was being silent. It was very unlike Bill. "He didn't fuck you, Eden. What did you use on him? Crushed pills in a drink? GHB? A lead pipe to the back of the head? Cough syrup?!"

"I didn't rape, Noah. Stop saying that!" Eden screamed. She jumped on RJ, knocking him to the ground, and started to strangle him. "I didn't! WE. MADE. LOVE."

Looking to Bill, RJ reached out for help, but the man didn't move. Eden was too strong to push or shake off. Bill just watched as RJ struggled to breathe.

"What are you doing?!" The door opened and Maya and Noah ran into the office. Of course they had followed RJ.

Noah tried to pull Eden off of RJ, but she didn't budge until Maya kicked her in the face.

"That's enough," Maya yelled as she knelt down and put herself between the two white people. "Lady, I don't know you, but if lay another finger on the kid you'll be dealing with me."

"He hit me first," Eden argued as Noah held her. "I was just defending myself."

"It didn't look like it to me," Maya replied, helping RJ to his feet. He was too busy gulping in air to speak.

"Why didn't you help him, Bill?" Noah asked the magnate. "Why didn't you stop them?"

"It wasn't my fight," Bill answered with a simple shrug.

"Noah. Listen," RJ gasped. "Eden... She..."

He didn't get to tell what she had done because Eden chose that moment to slam the back of her head into Noah's nose, and then she stomped on his foot. Pushing Noah away, Eden stepped forward and slugged RJ, then kicked him in the crotch.

"LIAR!" The woman roared and drove her knee into RJ's chin. Maya tried to step in, but Eden punched her in the throat. She brought her foot up and kicked Noah in the stomach when he tried again to intervene.

Bill just watched.

"You won't ruin this for me." Eden grabbed RJ by e back of his pants and the collar of his shirt and threw him. He stumbled across the office until he slammed into the big window behind Bill's desk. Then Eden ran up and kicked him through it.

Time slowed down as RJ began to fall. He reached out for something to grab onto: anything that would keep him from falling to the pavement below. The only thing he could reach was Eden's foot.

She followed him out the shattered window, screaming Noah's name. Both tumbled the three stories to the Spencer Publications parking lot. Then the world went black.


	16. Chapter 16

Brooke hugged Noah. She was terrified. When she got the call about RJ, she had left the office in Amber's completely incapable hands because her son had fallen out of a third story window.

"What did the doctors say?" she asked, not ready to let Noah go.

"They aren't releasing any information to me because I'm not family. You might want to ask at the nurse's station," Noah told Brooke, awkwardly patting her back.

Pulling away, she nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Who else did you call?"

"Just Liam. He was already at Spencer when it happened and rode over with me, but I don't have anyone else's number," Noah explained. Brooke gave him her phone and he looked at it. "What?"

"Use that. Call Ridge if Liam hasn't already. Call everyone you can think of. I need to... I need to see my son."

B&B

"You let that woman throw RJ out a window!" Maya screamed at Bill after the police had finished questioning them. "You didn't do a damn thing to stop her. He could die!"

"Are you done? I have a mountain of paperwork waiting for me, some of which you idiots knocked off my desk during that fight, and I'm already behind." Bill picked up the files from his floor, then stared at Maya. "Or do you have more to say about things you don't understand?"

"Actually, I do." The man could try all he wanted, but Maya refused to be intimidated. Her secret was out. Any leverage he had was gone. "Why did you do it, Bill? Why did you out me?"

"And what makes you think I did anything? Why would I bother telling the world your name used to be Michael?" Bill walked away from Maya and sat behind his desk, ignoring the shattered panel of glass directly behind him and slamming the files down.

"It was Myron, and you will never call me that. My name is Maya, you overgrown child. And I know you did it because I remember you blackmailing me a couple years ago. Or did you forget that like you forgot to keep Eden from choking the hell out of RJ?"

"What is your point? Even if I did out you, and I'm not saying I did, it isn't illegal. You were the one misrepresenting yourself as a woman."

"I AM A WOMAN!" Maya yelled. "I have always been a woman. Just like you've always been a jackass."

"This is a waste of my time. Unless you have something interesting to say, I suggest you leave. Unless you want the paparazzi to see my security team escorting you out of the building." Bill turned his chair around to face the broken window and waved to the photographers and reporters looking up at him.

"You're despicable," Maya spat.

B&B

Noah had called Ridge. It seemed the press knew something had happened at Spencer, but nobody was quite sure exactly what occurred. When Noah explained to his ex-boyfriend's father that RJ had fallen out of a window and hit pavement, that he was in surgery and the doctors wouldn't tell him anything, Ridge didn't take it well.

He went through the denial and the anger pretty quickly, but Noah hadn't heard Ridge reach acceptance before the call was ended. Similar things happened with everyone else he talked to, though each had their own variation. Donna screamed, Katie cried, and Steffy didn't answer the phone.

When he called Amber, she said she already knew. Brooke had told her, then left her in charge of L&M. She asked Noah how he was doing. He hadn't thought about how he was feeling about any of it. After all, it happened because of him. They were fighting over him. Eden had tried to kill RJ because of him.

He didn't know how he felt about it. Noah didn't know how he felt about the one name in Brooke's phone he recognized but had yet to call: Pasado, Thad.

While Noah wasn't certain it was the same Thad that RJ had mentioned, it didn't seem to be a coincidence. What was the etiquette for this situation? Was he supposed to give a heads up to the man for whom RJ had left him? After all, they had been sleeping together. RJ said himself he was staying with the man. It sounded more serious than Noah liked, but he and RJ weren't involved anymore: besides, Thad hadn't tried to kill anybody.

Noah took a deep breath and dialed the number. Each ring made his heart beat just a little harder. It almost stopped when the call was answered.

"Hi, Brooke. What do you need?"

There were a million things Noah wanted to say. Did Thad know RJ had a boyfriend? Did he care? Was he in love with RJ the way Noah was?

"This isn't Brooke. It's Noah Newman," he said nervously.

"Oh." There was a pause that proved Thad was aware of who he was. "RJ's ex? This is weird. Why do you have my boss's phone? Is Brooke okay?"

Closing his eyes, Noah grabbed at his hair with his free hand pulled. He had no idea what he was doing.

"Brooke's fine, Thad. It's about RJ. There was a... He fell out of a window at Spencer Publications and hit hit head. He's at UCLA."

There was another long pause that Noah couldn't read. He couldn't think about anything other than how he had driven RJ into this man's bed. Noah wanted to hate Thad, but he couldn't. Thad wasn't the one who came between RJ and Noah. Thad wasn't the one who threw RJ out of a window.

Noah opened his eyes and looked through the window into Eden's room. She had landed on top of RJ; he took most of the damage.

"Is he okay?"

"I don't know."

"I'll be there as soon as I can. Thank you, Noah."

Before Noah could say anything else, Thad ended the call. Noah stowed Brooke's phone in his pocket and reached for the handle to Eden's room. He didn't open it.

B&B

"Hello?" Taylor opened the door to the beach house but nobody was there. "Quinn? Wyatt? It's Taylor. You wanted to talk?"

No answer came, so Taylor let herself in and closed the door. She walked through the foyer and into the living room. There was screaming: Taylor didn't realize she was the one screaming until she stopped to take a breath. She started to pull out her phone, but something heavy and wooden knocked it from her hand, then struck her upside the head.

"No. Please," Taylor begged when she saw her attacker. "You don't have to do this."

"I want her back, Taylor," Sheila Carter said as she stomped what remained of Taylor's phone. "You locked me up in that clinic and you took my daughter, and if you don't tell me where Diana is you'll end up just like those two."

Taylor looked back over to Quinn and Wyatt, both of whom looked at her with dead, glassy eyes. "What did you do to them?"

Gripping the 2x4, Sheila swung and Taylor heard the sound of her kneecap shattering before the pain blossomed from the point of impact. Sheila used her free hand to grab Taylor by the hair and drag the screaming woman across the floor, throwing her in front of the roaring fireplace.

"They aren't dead, Taylor. Just incapacitated for awhile. Maybe forever. You won't be that lucky if you don't start answering my questions.

Sheila pulled the red hot poker out of the fireplace with the hand that wasn't wielding the piece of lumber. Again, the sound of Taylor's screams rang through the beach house as Sheila branded the psychiatrist.

"Now where is she, you bitch? Where is my Diana?!"

B&B

Courtney was awake when he entered. She had pretended to sleep the entire time Noah watched her, but eventually he had left to check on that fool RJ. She could move her toes, but the morphine drip was so strong that she couldn't do much more than that.

"I'm so glad you're here. You need to help me escape before the cops start guarding my room."

He smiled at her and held a finger to his lips as he shut the door and closed the blinds. It was then that she noticed the gloves on his hands. She wanted to scream, but her voice couldn't manage anything above a whisper.

"Don't worry, Eden. Victor is taking care of everything. Nobody will ever know that either one of us was involved in this. And he's not upset with you. If RJ dies, then you will still have completed your original mission. Just remember that you were never guaranteed Noah's affections."

The lock clicked and he slowly walked to the machines monitoring her condition. She watched him, too scared to say anything.

"What is the order again?" He reached out and began hitting buttons. Courtney reached for the button that would call the nurse, but she was so tired that she couldn't do it before he saw her. The man slapped her hand and pulled the remote away. "I just want some alone time with you, is all. Is that too much to ask?"

"Please, Ricky..." she begged before he put his gloved hand over her mouth and tutted.

"It's Thad now, 'Eden'. Ricky Williams died: just like Courtney Sloan. You know this," he said in a gentle voice, as though he were answering the question of a curious child. "Now just lay there and let me take care of everything. You'll be out of this hospital soon enough. And if you're lucky, they'll all forget this blood type nonsense that is sure to come up.

"The real Eden is O positive, but it's not your fault. It's not like you can just stop being A negative. Dr. Fascinella is good, but he doesn't have the ability to alter biology. And Victor had her medical records altered, but not Noah's memory. Not that it matters. Soon, none of it will."

Ricky pulled his hand from Courtney's mouth and reached into the pocket of his jacket. It was almost summer and they were in California. Why did he need a coat?

"Victor really isn't mad about what happened to RJ, but you also attacked his grandson. And you did all of this publicly. That was ill-advised. Eventually the police the will question you. We can't run the risk that you'll say something that could undo all the work we've done."

Ricky pulled out a small amber bottle and a syringe. Courtney tried again to scream, but ended up coughing instead. Ignoring her, Ricky filled the syringe with whatever poison he had, then tested it. Satisfied, he grabbed her IV and felt the hose for the port where medications were added.

"Oh, right, you might rip it out," Ricky noted. He adjusted the flow of morphine to its maximum, her limbs were already too heavy to stop him. “I promise, this won't hurt a bit. You'll just go to sleep like Noah Newman did when you collected your samples. Victor was going to let you carry his great grandchild. You could have had it all, but you just couldn't control yourself.”

Ricky shook his head and tutted again as he injected the poison into Courtney's IV. She felt nothing, but imagined that it would probably burn if she could.

“Goodbye, my dear. I have to go check on my lover that you almost killed. I do hope he survives: there is something very special in the works for RJ and I would hate for it to be shelved due to an untimely demise. It's quite exciting.”

With a smile, Ricky pocketed the syringe and the vial of poison. He looked Courtney over, then left. She spent her last moments thinking of Noah.

B&B

“Aly, are you sure you're up to this? It'll be direct defiance of Rick.” Steffy wished she were able to trust someone more stable, but her cousin was just clueless enough that she could be manipulated without fear of reprisal.

Nodding, Aly looked over the designs. “They're really good, Steffy. Why aren't we selling them? And why do I have to say they're mine?”

“We will be selling them, Aly. People just can't know I made them because then they would write them off as being from Ridge Forrester's daughter. But if this is a success, Rick will have no choice but to greenlight your shoe line. And your shoes are brilliant,” Steffy lied.

Aly smiled and bounced in her seat. “Okay, Steffy. It's a deal! When is the press conference?”

“Tomorrow. I'll do all the talking. You just show up and make sure to say nothing to Rick,” Steffy warned, patting Aly on the cheek. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go to finalize a few things.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

Steffy shook her head. “No, Aly. I need you to stay here and wait for the mockups. They need to be perfect for tomorrow. Call me as soon as they arrive.”

B&B

“I got here as soon as I could.”

Noah didn't know the man who stood in the waiting room, hands on his knees and breathing heavily, but he recognized his voice.

“Thad?” Unsure of what to do with his hands, Noah stuck them in his back pockets. He looked up at the ceiling because he didn't want to look at RJ's new boyfriend.

“Oh. You're Noah. I know your... From the phone, I mean.” He made a hand motion and Noah looked down to see that he was imitating hold a phone.

He really was handsome. For a moment, Noah almost understood why RJ had cheated with him. Then he remembered that RJ had cheated with him and let himself grow angry.

“Yeah. I'm Noah.” He pulled his hands out of his pockets and crossed his arms over her chest, adopting as confrontational a stance as he could. “And you're the asshole who stole my boyfriend.”

“It wasn't like that, Noah. We weren't... It just happened. And this isn't the time. Is RJ okay?”

Sighing, Noah mentally agreed that it was the wrong place and time for a fight. And it wasn't like this Thad had actively pursued RJ. It was more that Noah drove RJ away with his inability to get over Eden. Everything was such a mess.

“I don't know. Brooke and Liam are with the doctor. I guess Liam is legally his cousin or something so they let him into the room until everyone else arrived. Ridge and Caroline, that's RJ's dad and his fiancee, they're in the cafeteria.”

“And you're here...” Thad said slowly.

“With me,” Noah finished for him. “Maya should be coming soon if she can get past the press. Security has already thrown out three people with camera phones trying to take pictures.”

“Oh. Good. I like Maya. Shame what happened to her.”

“Yeah.” Noah narrowed his eyes. “I like her, too. Too bad for you her ex-fiance is straight.”

Thad threw his hands into the air. “What do you want from me? An apology?”

“It would be a start.”

“Keep waiting,” Thad snarled. “I don't regret a single second I spent with RJ. It's not my fault you didn't appreciate what you had.”

Noah wanted to punch the man. Who the hell was he to talk like that when he was the one cheating with RJ? He may have been hot, but Thad was the piece of shit who knowingly fucked a guy with a boyfriend.

“I'm going to go find out how MY MAN is doing. That is why we're here, Noah. Or did you forget that RJ fell out of a window?”

Thad brushed by Noah on his way to the nurses' station. It took all of Noah's self-control to keep from lashing out. When Thad turned the corner and disappeared from his sight, Noah sat down. All he could do was wait.


	17. Chapter 17

The beeping was the first thing RJ heard when he woke up. At first, he thought it was the alarm on his phone, but when he reached to shut it off he realized was attached to an IV. He was in the hospital and the beeping wasn't his phone: it was a monitor.

Rolling his head to the other side of the bed, RJ saw his mother passed out in a chair, but she wasn't alone. Liam was snoozing as well, Brooke in his arms. RJ blinked several times.

As weird as it was, he tried to remember why he was in the hospital. Things were a little fuzzy and he tried running his hands through his hair.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!” RJ shrieked, startling his mother and Liam awake.

“RJ, honey, calm down!” Brooke told her son while Liam ran to get a nurse. “It's okay. You're safe. Nobody is going to hurt you.”

The memories hit RJ like a freight train: the fight with Steffy, the fight with Eden, finding out Noah was raped, and then being kicked through a window. It didn't stop his screaming. He didn't care about any of that.

Breaking down crying, RJ felt his mother lean across the bed and pull him into a hug. She stroked his face and whispered to him that she was going to protect him.

“MOM!” he sobbed when he was able to form words. “What happened to me?”

“Noah told us that Eden Baldwin tried to kill you, but you don't need to worry about her, Baby. She died.”

“Not that!” RJ pushed his mother away and pointed at his scalp, back on the verge of tears. “Why the hell am I bald?”

Brooke stared at her son. “You had a head injury. They didn't know when you would wake up, so I OKed them shaving it to get a better look at what they were dealing with.”

“Why would you do that? And I am so not wearing wigs. Do I look like Wyatt Spencer to you?!” RJ was beginning to get his hysteria under control and anger was replacing it. “You better buy me some cute hats, Mom. And I mean really cute. This is worse than when you fired me!”

“RJ,” Brooke sighed, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “You weren't fired. How many times do I have to tell you that? Besides, a woman tried to kill you.”

“Liam held you while you slept,” RJ mused, tapping his chin.

“Fine, we'll order some hats.” Brooke reached into her purse and pulled out her tablet. “Log into Amazon and pick some out before the doctor gets here.”

B&B

The lock finally clicked and the two intruders were glad there was no alarm. Slipping into the apartment, they made sure to lock the door behind them.

"I haven't picked a lock in forever. Sorry it took so long," Maya told Noah. "Are you sure that you want to be here? I can't think of a thing this is going to accomplish beyond making you feel worse."

"That wasn't Eden who attacked all of us, Maya. She... She could definitely be bitchy back when we were in school, but she wouldn't try to kill anyone. Something happened to her in Chicago."

"And you think searching her place is going to turn up something that happened halfway across the country?" Maya looked around the apartment. It wasn't as big as the loft, and the furniture wasn't nearly as expensive. It was sparsely decorated: that only made sense considering Eden had just moved into the place.

Noah shook his head. "I don't know what else to do. Lauren and Michael are on their way to..."

"To collect the body," Maya finished for him. She didn't particularly care about Eden dying, having only met the woman when she was trying to kill her coworker, but she didn't like seeing the effect it was having on Noah. He had done so much for her after the outing: he was the closest thing she had to a friend in Los Angeles. Hell, he was the only friend she had in the world besides Layla.

"Yeah. I really thought she was going to be okay. I wanted to ask her why she did it, but unless there's something here we'll never know. And I have to find something. Because if I don't, if there's nothing here, then I really don't know what I'll do, Maya."

"Go check the dresser, Noah. I'm going to get you something to drink. Your voice sounds a little dry. Do you want ice?"

"No," he told her. "I'm good."

She did, though. Maya had even less of an idea of what to look for than Noah, so she was content to let him do all the work. It was obvious that he needed to be the one to do it. Because if he stopped, then he would probably break.

Maya searched through the cabinets for a couple of glasses. There was only beer and orange juice in Eden's fridge, so she filled her glass with tap water.

"What do you want?" she asked her companion as she opened the freezer. He didn't immediately answer. There was no ice, just two small, plastic containers. Curious, she reached in and pulled one out. Popping off the lid, Maya examined the contents, then dropped it.

"Is everything okay?" Noah asked, looking over to Maya. "What is it?"

"I've never seen it frozen, but I'm pretty sure Eden has sperm here, Noah. What are the odds it's yours?" Maya backed away from the container and grabbed her glass of room temperature water. She needed one of the beers in the fridge.

Making his way across the apartment, Noah came up behind Maya and touched her shoulder. He looked down at the container and she saw his face out of the corner of her eye. The boy was more than a little grossed out. That was okay, because so was Maya.

"I never... It can't be mine, Maya. Trust me. I would remember doing THAT!" Noah explained. Maya drank her water and sat the empty glass down.

Turning around, she realized how close he actually was to her. Maya looked up into his eyes: they were full of shock. She grabbed at the hand on her shoulder.

"The same way you remember sleeping with her the other day?"

Then Noah blinked. He looked down at Maya and gave a half-frown. "What are you talking about?"

She tried not to smile because the situation really didn't call for it, but it was kinda cute how dumb Noah was. Really, what Maya was about to say was deathly serious so she needed to be the same way.

"What if you didn't sleep with Eden, Noah? What if the reason you don't remember anything is because she drugged you?"

Noah shook his head, blinked, and moved his mouth simultaneously for a few seconds before speaking. "Are you saying Eden raped me? She wouldn't do that, Maya."

"And you also told me she wouldn't try to kill RJ. That's the whole reason we're here. Noah, I don't know Eden. At all. But this is some sick shit."

"There has to be another explanation," Noah insisted as he pulled away from Maya. He ran to the bed opened the nightstand. She watched as he rifled through the contents of the drawer.

"Noah, either Eden changed so much that she's not the woman you thought you knew..."

"Or she's not Eden at all," Noah interrupted. He turned back to Maya and there was something in his hand. She sat her glass down and moved a little closer to see that he was holding a very ugly ring. "This isn't Eden's."

"How would you know that, Noah? You've only been here one time."

"Because I bought this ring, but there's no way Eden could have it. I... I bought this for her."

Maya was confused. "Her who? What am I missing?"

"Courtney. She was my fiancee, Maya. Back when I lived in Genoa City. We never got married, though. She died. It was one of the reasons I first came to LA."

"How did Eden get your dead fiancee's engagement ring? That is what it is, right? I'm sorry if I'm being insensitive, but this makes no sense, Noah." Maya walked up to him and looked at the ring. It was even uglier up close.

"Of course it makes no sense. Courtney was supposed to be dead. I held her body, Maya. She died on our wedding day. She was wearing this ring when I found her. There is no way Eden could have gotten it."

"Are you saying that you think this Courtney woman is still alive?"

"Was," Noah corrected. His voice had gone raspy and he kept his eyes fixated on the ring. "I've seen a lot of people in my time who were supposed to be dead that weren't. It's possible. I mean..."

"Are you telling me that Courtney and Eden were working together? Noah? I'm not a mind reader. Walk me through whatever it is you're thinking."

"I'm thinking that it wasn't Eden who tried to kill RJ. God help me, Maya, but I think that was Courtney who died in the hospital."

Maya sat on the bed. She couldn't follow Noah's logic. How did Eden having a dead woman's ring mean she was actually that woman?

"That's why the doctor argued with me when I told him she was O positive," Noah mumbled, sitting next to Maya. He finally looked away from the ring and to her. "I'm sorry to ask you this, but what can you tell me about that Dr. Fascinella guy?"

B&B

"It's not finalized yet, but Forrester Creations is hoping to partner with the My Brother's Keeper program. No matter what organization we ultimately work with, this company is guaranteed to dedicating all proceeds from the sale of this new line to helping disadvantaged youth," Steffy told the reporter.

Rick shut off the TV and and look at the woman who had just been on it. "What the hell were you doing? You approved AND debuted a collection with neither my knowledge nor my permission. I'm the CEO, Steffy. This is my company. There are channels you have to go through."

"I own 25% of this company, Rick. You own nothing. And I'm trying to save this company from all the damage you and the rest of the Logans have done to it." Steffy crossed her arms and gave Rick a silent challenge.

"Whether you own 25% of this company or not, I'm still in charge, Steffy. You will respect my authority!" Rick pounded his fist on his desk and she laughed.

"Or what? Rick, right now, the company is seeing its worse sales ever under your leadership. I'm just doing all I can to help save the Forrester name after you dragged it through the mud. And if that means sacrificing profit from an entire line to improve our PR, then I'll do just that."

Raising his eyebrows, Rick tried staring Steffy down, but it didn't work. "Where did you get those designs, anyway? I've seen Aly's shoes. They were hideous, so there's no way she would design any of the things in that collection. Nobody in this company has made designs that bold except for Layla."

Steffy smiled. "And just where is your little lapdog? At the vet getting her rabies shot, I hope."

"She's at the hospital waiting to see RJ, just like your dad and my ex-wife."

"I didn't know Layla and RJ knew each other, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Trash does tend to attract other trash. And why aren't you at the hospital, visiting our poor brother in his time of need?"

"Someone has to be here to stop you from running Forrester into the ground, Steffy."

"How odd," she chuckled, shaking her head and showing off her new extensions. "I was just thinking the same thing about you, Rick. Your time in that chair is running out."

B&B

"It was our entire fall collection, Brooke! Everything RJ and I had worked on!" Amber yelled into her phone. She was furious. It was one thing for her to steal designs from Forrester: they had years of rejects they could cobble together at the last minute. She only had a couple of months! "Steffy and Aly stole our designs and debuted them as a charity collection! So either we postpone our collection until I can do something new, or we go the police and look like we're stealing from poor people. We're fucked either way."

"What about your rejected designs? Can you do something with those? I can probably say that, due to RJ's injuries, we won't do a full collection, but we still need a stopgap of at least five pieces."

Amber sighed and fought the urge to throw her phone. "I'll see what I can do, but you had better fix this, Brooke. You're the fucking CEO. Oh, and tell RJ I'll be out to see him as soon as I can. Which may be never at this rate."

After hanging up, Amber walked to the filing cabinet and pulled out a file full of pieces she and RJ had both agreed weren't up to snuff. It was going to be a long day.

B&B

"Come here," RJ said, patting an empty spot in his hospital bed. Thad nodded and closed the door, taking the seat next to RJ.

Earlier, Ridge had tried to see RJ, but he had thrown a fit. Even after everything, RJ still couldn't find anything for his father but contempt. He didn't want to even try to repair things. Brooke thought he had acted out because Caroline was with him and RJ didn't want to bother correcting her.

"We need to talk." RJ leaned into Thad and made the man hold him. He could feel Thad's heart beating against his cheek. It was comforting. It was the only thing that could comfort him after finding out Eden was dead and Noah was gone. Noah hadn't even stuck around to see if he would wake up.

"This sounds serious. Are you dumping me? Did you have brain damage and wake up straight? Are you a top now?"

"Shut up!" RJ laughed, playfully slapping Thad's chest and thanking modern medicine for strong painkillers. "I know we had the 'what are we' conversation already, but I almost died. It has me thinking about a lot of things. About Noah, and about you."

"I'd be willing to try a three way relationship, but I don't think your ex cares for me."

Playing with the cuffs of Thad's work shirt, RJ inhaled his scent. The man had obviously spent the night and most of the day in the hospital waiting room. His deodorant had stopped working and RJ didn't care.

"I'm trying to be serious and you're being funny. You're an asshole." RJ laughed for a second time. "Listen, Thad, when you and I first started hooking up, I was in a bad place. To be honest, I still am, but for whatever reason you've stuck by me. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that."

"But I'm not Noah?" Thad guessed, his arms tightening around RJ's sore body. "You are dumping me."

"I'm not," RJ assured him. "I'm not breaking up with you. All I want to do is be honest with you. Noah was the first man I ever loved. The only one, really, but we're toxic. We had something special years ago in Paris and we tried to recreate it here in Los Angeles and it just didn't work. I cheated on him with you and he had issues with his ex, the same woman who put me in this hospital bed mind you, and I need to accept that it's not going to work.

"And it's too soon to any other words, but I do care about you. I want to get to know you. Thad Pasado, I want you in my life for however long is possible."

Thad didn't say anything. He just nuzzled RJ's ear and kissed his temple. It was enough.

B&B

The beach house was too quiet when Bill entered. He yelled for Quinn, then the new nurse Brenda, but nobody answered. After closing the door, he strutted into the foyer, bellowing the names of everyone staying in the residence, but it wasn't until he walked into the next room that he saw why the house was so quiet.

“Wyatt?” Bill pushed Quinn's body off of his son and held him. He was still warm, but unresponsive. Bill held his wrist and felt a pulse. “Come on, Son. Wake up. What happened here? WHO DID THIS?”

As he waited for an answer that Wyatt couldn't give, Bill heard quiet sobbing. There was someone else in the room, lying by the embers of the fireplace. She was surrounded by dried pools of blood that would cost way too much money to clean.

Laying Wyatt down, Bill stepped over Quinn and checked on the woman. “Hey, it's okay. Whoever is here is gone. What happened?”

Bill spared one last glance around the room before turning his attention back to the woman. He grabbed her shoulder, rolled her over, and screamed.

“Taylor? Oh my god! What happened to your face?!” Bill cried as he looked away from her and around the room just to make sure the attacker really was gone.

“She never touched my face,” Taylor explained in a quiet voice. She reached out to Bill and he helped her sit up. Taylor choked on a sob and Bill noticed that one of her legs was oddly bent. “She's back, Bill. I tried to keep her away. I really did, but Sheila is free and I failed.”

“Who the hell is Sheila? Did she do this? What is wrong with my son? WHAT HAPPENED, TAYLOR?” Bill yelled as he shook the battered woman.

“Sheila Carter is a madwoman, Bill. She's tried to kill me before. Almost succeeded once,” Taylor told him, looking as if she was fighting the urge to vomit. He released her and scooted a safe distance away. “She told me that Quinn and Wyatt aren't dead. But I don't know what she did to them.”

“How did she get here? Why did she attack my son and his mother? I mean, apparently she hates you, so that explains that.” Bill pulled out his phone but kept his eyes on Taylor.

“I think she... She was a nurse, Bill. Once upon a time, back when she lived in Genoa City. She was married to Eric a long time ago. She's terrorized everyone here on and off for years. Sheila... She claimed that she had a daughter with Massimo Marone. He worked with me to fake Sheila's death and have her locked up. We figured that she wouldn't be able to escape if we dealt with her off the books.”

“Massimo Marone? Ridge's biological father?”

Taylor nodded, then winced. “We couldn't let the girl know who she really was. It was just too dangerous. Massimo took care of everything. She was just a child when we got her, so I broke my code of ethics and implanted false memories. The girl has no idea who her parents are. Massimo has taken care of her, been her benefactor, but I have no idea where the girl is or anything about her. Sheila didn't like that.”

“Obviously,” Bill agreed, pointing at one of the bloodstains on his floor. “But this Sheila left you alive, Taylor. Why? If you had nothing to tell her, why didn't she kill you or do to you what she did to Wyatt?”

“Bill, I don't know how her mind works. She's insane on a level beyond my abilities. But she didn't kill me because I did tell her the one thing I knew about the girl.”

“Which was?”

Taylor looked away from Bill and to the embers in the fireplace. She touched a burn mark on her neck. “A name, Bill. She was born Diana, but that isn't her name anymore.”

“And what is?”

“Celia. Celia Fitzgerald. And I need to call Massimo and warn him that his daughter is in danger. Please, call am ambulance, and then let me borrow your phone.”

“No.” Bill held up a finger to Taylor. He stood, using that same finger to scroll through his contacts. “Justin? It's Bill. I need you to find out everything you can about a girl named Celia Fitzgerald. Any girl named Celia Fitzgerald. And look into a Sheila Carter as well. I'll tell you why when I think you need to know.”

Bill hung up on his Justin, then called for an ambulance. He walked away from Taylor as she pleaded for the phone. Celia Fitzgerald may not know she really was, but soon enough she would know who Bill Spencer was and so would Sheila Carter.


	18. Chapter 18

"I'll miss you most of all, Scarecrow," Maya told Layla with an accompanying warm hug.

Layla squeezed her friend extra tight and did her best not to cry. "I wish you'd come to see me sooner, but I'm glad you came at all. I was scared you'd try to do something."

Shaking her head, Maya pulled away. "The thought never occurred to me. I dealt with all of that stuff back when I was a kid. All I needed was some time away from everything to figure out what I needed."

"And you need to leave Los Angeles?"

Maya shook her head and Layla took a sip of her wine. She'd been in Los Angeles for almost four months and Maya was the only friend she had. She had thought that Rick was, too, but his recent actions had left Layla with the urge to distance herself. She wasn't leaving Forrester, because she refused to let Caroline and Ridge have their way, but Layla was very aware of just how few allies she had left.

"Not forever. Brooke and Amber have given me a few months leave. My contract guarantees that at least two months will be paid, so I'm covered there. And it's not like I have an apartment I need to sublease while I'm gone."

"You can stay here when you come back. You know that, right?" Layla meant it, too.

Looking past Layla and to the the sofa over her shoulder, Maya nodded. "I know. Thank you for everything. But I don't know when I'll be coming back or even where all we'll be going."

"We?"

"Me and Noah." Maya smiled, but Layla could tell there was something going unsaid behind the smile. "We're leaving together. I broke up with Rick and RJ dumped him and we're just going to see what the world has in store for us."

"Are you two a thing?" Layla raised her eyebrows and smiled back at her friend.

Even though Maya shook her head, Layla didn't believe her denial. "No, I don't think either one of us is ready for anything more than friendship at this point."

"At this point."

Maya hugged her friend one last time and Layla kissed her cheek.

"Well, whether you and Noah Newman stay friends or not, take care of yourself, Maya. And you better come see me the moment you get back to LA."

"Done and done."

B&B

"So you're leaving." RJ didn't look at Noah. He couldn't. It was the first time they'd seen each other since Eden had died. It hurt a bit that Noah hadn't seen him the entire week he spent laid up, but arrived the day he was supposed to get out. "I assume you want your stuff sent to your mom's place?"

"I've already taken care of it," Noah said, standing in the doorway of RJ's hospital room. "The loft is all yours. You don't have to hide from me anymore because I won't be there."

"I didn't hide from you," RJ lied.

"You did."

"Fine, I did." RJ finally looked up and saw that Noah wasn't amused. That was fine because RJ wasn't either. "I hope that whatever you do next, you're happy. Because we both know that you haven't been happy for a long time."

"Neither have you." Noah sighed.

RJ turned and looked out the window. The sun glinted off the windows of a nearby building.

“I thought we would work this time,” RJ told Noah, drawing his knees to his chest and hugging them. Even though the doctors had told him nothing was broken, he was still sore and just moving hurt. He needed more painkillers but didn't want to ask for them. “Where did we go wrong?”

“We were never right,” Noah answered. As much as he wished otherwise, RJ knew it was true. “I think we wanted to be together because we didn't know what else to do. We forgot how to be friends.”

With a fearful nod, RJ agreed. “I still care about you, but I just... We need to let it go. I have my whatever it is with Thad. Eden died trying to kill me. My family is at war trying to destroy each other and your grandfather hates me. You haven't seen your dad since before that slag cunt Taylor outed us. There's too much baggage for us to hold onto something that we haven't been invested in.”

“I care about you, too, RJ. I'm sorry everything... You know. Have a good life. Be happy.” Noah offered a farewell wave that RJ returned. It was obvious neither felt it.

“You, too.”

After Noah closed the door and RJ was alone, he breathed. It was long and shuddering but he didn't cry. He was done crying over Noah Newman.

B&B

"Bill, where are you going? RJ is getting out of the hospital today after his fall last week," Katie said as her husband watched the maid pack his suitcase.

"Pennsylvania," he grunted as he checked his watch and did his best to not yell at the maid to hurry up. His wife hated it when he yelled at the help. Bill hated it when Katie yelled at him.

"What's in Pennsylvania? Spencer Publications doesn't have anything based out of there."

"A whole lot of nothing," Bill informed his wife with a sneer. "But it's not business-related."

"Is it about Wyatt and Quinn?"

Nodding, Bill remembered Taylor begging him not to tell anyone about Sheila until she could talk to Massimo. He didn't much care about Ridge having a secret sister: his focus was solely on using the girl to find Sheila. And just that morning, Justin had turned something up. They had found a Celia Fitzgerald who was about the right age and background to be Sheila's daughter.

"There's a doctor there by the name of Hayward," Bill said dismissively. He had rehearsed the conversation in his head so many times he had any and all questions answered before Katie could ask them. "He was in the news a few years back for some medical breakthrough called Orpheus. I'm hoping he'll be able to do something to help Wyatt."

"And his mother," Katie added. Bill shrugged.

"All that matters is that I go to this Pine Valley hole and talk to this doctor. You and Liam will be fine without me for a few days."

Katie stammered. "A few days, Bill? Why don't you just call the man?"

"Because he doesn't have a legal medical license. I'm going to woo a man into flying across the country to do an illegal medical exam on Wyatt to figure out just what happened in that house. That needs to be done in person."

The maid zipped Bill's suitcase shut and he dismissed her with a wave. Katie thanked her and the maid nodded before leaving the room.

"I'll call you when I get there," Bill promised before kissing his wife on the cheek.

"You better." Katie hugged her husband.

Bill smiled. He was going to find this Celia, he was going to ensnare Sheila Carter in his trap, and he would find out just what she had done to his son.

B&B

"He's still not answering," RJ complained. Liam just rolled his eyes and sighed. He did like the kid, but how had he gotten stuck with being his caretaker? "He's probably still busy as hell at the office. They're spending all their time trying to scrape together a line at the last second and here I am doing nothing."

"You just got out of the hospital less than an hour ago, RJ. A woman tried to kill you. I don't think anyone cares that you aren't at work. And this is where you've been staying?" Liam pulled up in front of the apartment complex and double checked his GPS. It was the right address.

"Isn't it precious?" RJ asked, rolling down the passenger side window and waving to the teens sitting on the steps leading to the entrance. "Hola!"

Liam grinned and waved as well, but the kids ignored them. "Why does your boyfriend live here?"

"Because he's too poor for Beverly Hills and too ethnic for Silver Lake," RJ explained. "Besides, the Eastside has a certain charm."

"If you say so. My car is gonna be safe here, right?"

RJ looked at Liam like he was a dumbass. "It will be fine. I just need to grab some things before I go back to the loft."

"Right. Noah told me he was leaving when he quit. How are you taking it?"

"I'm accepting it." It didn't take a genius to see that RJ was hurt, but Liam didn't want to push it any further. "Are you coming up? I mean, I can walk and all that, but unless you want my crippled ass to be hauling everything at the speed of Aly, you might wanna help."

"Are you sure Thad is gonna be okay with me being in his apartment? We don't know each other."

"Liam," RJ opened the car door and looked at his friend, "it's fine. You're fine, your car is fine, Thad is fine, and, aside from the bruising and this hat being viridian instead of olive, I'm fine. Everything is okay, or it's on its way to getting there. So chill."

It hurt, getting out of the car, but RJ was just thankful that hurt was all he was. What if he had broken something in the fall? What if he had died like Eden?

"Lemme help you," Liam insisted, slamming his door shut and gently grabbing RJ's arm and helping keep him steady.

"My hero," RJ laughed. Liam joined in and the kids on the steps ignored them. "This may take awhile, because there's no elevator."

"I'm shocked."

When they reached the door to Thad's apartment, RJ fished the key out of his pocket. Thad had... In the hospital, when it was just the two of them, Thad had given RJ a key. Most people would have thought they were moving way too fast, but everything RJ had done with the man was fast. He was just glad that the key meant Thad was taking the relationship as seriously as he was. There was something definite between them. There had to be.

The door swung open to an empty apartment.

"Are you sure this is the right place?"

Pulling away from Liam, RJ stumbled to the tiny hole in the wall that passed for a closet. All of his clothes were still there, but any trace of his new beau was gone. What the hell was going on?

"I'm sorry I couldn't stay," Liam said. RJ turned as fast as his body would let him and spied Liam reading a note taped to the fridge. "Something came up back home and I didn't have time to tell you goodbye."

"But he had time to remove any trace of his existence." RJ hobbled over to Liam and ripped the paper from the fridge. There was still more written on it. "I hope you can forgive me, but until then I hope you treasure the reminder of our time together I left on my laptop."

"This must be it." Liam had wandered away while RJ was reading. The laptop was on the counter and Liam touched the screen and snorted, then reached down to the touch pad. "He couldn't even afford a touchscreen? How poor was your... Oh god."

Liam slammed the laptop shut and his face went white. This scared RJ.

"What is it? Liam, tell me."

"I don't know how."

"Then move over so I can see."

B&B

Steffy laughed. When she had been linked the video in a blind text, she almost hadn't clicked on it. It was probably spam or a virus, she had reasoned. She was wrong.

One might find it morbid or disgusting that Steffy Forrester was watching her brother's sex tape, but she just found it hilarious. And judging by the tweets tagged with his name, so did a lot of other people. Admittedly, he had some skill, but not much. Most of his positions were amateurish at best. No wonder Noah had left him: RJ looked like a boring lay.

The only thing more laughable than her brother's performance was the number of people who had viewed the video. Only ten thousand? That was lame. It probably would've been higher if there had been audio. Oh well, once the news reached the blogs, and she was sure they were typing everything up now, hits would escalate.

With a smile, Steffy copied the URL and forwarded it to Bill. He would do everything with it that she couldn't. Then Steffy logged out of her Twitter account and into the Forrester Creations verified account. It was time to stir up a little publicity.

"Forrester Creations kindly requests that everyone respects the privacy of RJ Logan at this time," Steffy typed with a giggle. If that didn't draw the public's attention, nothing would.

B&B

“I came here wanting to be a singer and an actress. I wanted to be a star. Hollywood was supposed to be my ticket out of that hellhole where I grew up.” Maya gave a sad smile and looked at the skyscrapers around her. “A lot of good things happened here. Some great things, really. I fell in love with three very different men in this city. I had a daughter. I had an entire second life, which is two more than some get.”

“It can still happen,” Noah promised. He reached out and held Maya's hand. Her eyes traveled from their clasped hands to his face. The smile on her face became more sincere and he returned it. “We'll come back.”

“We?” Maya asked, curious as to what Noah meant. As far as she knew, RJ was the reason he was even in LA. “What about Genoa City?”

“What about it? I still have my internship at Spencer: Liam is letting me take an indefinite leave, partially because of what Courtney did and mostly because they weren't paying me anyway. Besides, I still have my music. It'll be a lot easier to get a record label here than in Wisconsin.”

Nodding, Maya squeezed Noah's hand and tried to ignore the butterflies in her stomach. “Right. My mistake.”

“You remember where this Fascinella guy's clinic is, right?” Noah asked, the mood suddenly changing. Things were no longer light and hopeful. “You really don't have to come with me. It could be dangerous.”

“It would be more dangerous for you. Rich white boys make great hostages,” Maya argued, the taxi finally pulling up in front of the building. As Maya stepped up to open the door, she felt a tug on her hand. Noah wasn't moving. Turning her head, she saw that he was looking up at the building where he had lived for all those months. She broke a little at the look on his face. “We need to go.”

“Yeah,” Noah said sadly, pulling his eyes away from the building and looking into Maya's. He could force himself to smile all her wanted, but he couldn't hide the hurt in his eyes. Maya knew that pain well. “We need to go.”


	19. Epilogue

Taylor looked into Ridge's eyes and knew she couldn't tell him anything. If he knew what she had done, if he even suspected, he would never forgive her. The guilt hurt worse than her broken leg.

"How is RJ?" Taylor asked, looking away from her ex-husband. She had been so concerned with her secret, with Sheila, that she had forgotten all about the kid until his father walked into the door. "How are things at Forrester?"

"You didn't hear?" Ridge blinked at Taylor as he opened his bag of cotton candy. He didn't offer to share. "It's been all over the news."

"I've been preoccupied," she explained, pointing to the cast on her leg. She didn't feel it was necessary to explain that most of her free time was spent trying to contact Massimo. And she couldn't. He had just vanished.

"You know RJ's ex, Noah Newman?" Ridge pulled free a tuft of the blue and pink confection as Taylor nodded. "Noah's ex tried to kill RJ. They got into a fight and both of them went flying out of a window at Spencer. RJ's okay, I guess, but Eden died."

All Taylor could do was feel her heart stop. She had... She had known Eden's secret, that she wasn't who she claimed she was. And because she had stayed silent, Ridge's son had almost died.

"What did RJ tell you about it?" Taylor scratched at the edge of her cast and watched Ridge's face. "Why were they fighting?"

"I don't know. He refused to talk to me, even after almost dying. Can you believe that? And he has a new boyfriend already. I haven't met this one, either."

“Thank you for stopping by, Ridge. It was good to see you, and I’m glad RJ’s okay, but I'm so tired. I need to take a nap," Taylor lied. She needed to be alone with her thoughts.

Ridge stuffed a handful of cotton candy in his mouth, then said farewell to Taylor and promised to visit her again. She waited until she was sure he was gone and grabbed her cell phone from the stand next to her hospital bed.

Searching RJ's name on Google, Taylor saw articles about the fall, but also more recent ones, not even an hour old, about a tape. Thinking it was rehashing the one she had leaked, she clicked on one of the headlines and felt her heart stop again.

It wasn't the tape of Noah kissing RJ at the airport. In fact, Noah wasn't in the tape at all. The article only had still images with the nudity blurred out, but there was RJ's face plain as day. The other man was unnamed, but there was a link to a previous article. The author of the article didn't seem to know who he was, but Taylor recognized him.

The man having sex in the video with RJ was the same man who had threatened her into silence about Eden Baldwell. Everything clicked. Sheila hadn't escaped: Victor Newman had released her. Even though Taylor had stayed silent, even though she kept what she knew to herself, a woman was dead and two others were on the verge of it.

Nobody could know that Taylor knew. She needed to get a hold of Massimo Marone as soon as possible. Where was he?

B&B

Jane's Addiction looked like the kind of place poor people would hang out, Bill thought to himself. The girl had agreed to meet him, thinking he was going to offer her an internship since his last one had died, but she had no idea what was coming.

"One large coffee. Black." Bill threw a twenty dollar bill on the counter and stared at the barista.

"You forgot to say please," the woman replied, not moving.

"No, I didn't." Smiling, Bill crossed his arms over his chest.

The barista picked up the bill, held it to the light, and then dropped it to the floor, where it settled at Bill's feet. "Well, then, I guess I didn't hear your order."

"Can I talk to your manager?"

The woman laughed and leaned on the counter. "You're looking at the manager. And the owner. Or did you not notice my name on the sign over the door?"

"You would do well to know your place," Bill scanned her nametag, "Jane. I am not somebody you want to make mad."

"And I'm quite sure I don't care. Now either change your attitude or get off my property," Jane shot back, an irritating smile on her face. Bill made a note to have one of the editors of one his food magazines give the place a terrible rating.

Not wanting to be kicked out before he could meet Celia, Bill picked the bill up from the floor and held it out to her. "My apologies. One large black coffee. Please."

"Coming right up. You're order number 47," Jane told bill, ringing the order up and holding his change out with a receipt.

"Excuse me," a young woman interrupted, stepping up beside Bill. He recognized her from the picture Justin had sent. "Are you Bill Spencer?"

"You must be Celia Fitzgerald." Bill ignored Jane and his money, shaking Celia's hand instead. "Let's have a seat. We need to talk."

Celia led him to a table and looked like she was doing her best not to explode. "Thank you so much for the opportunity, Mr. Spencer. I don't even remember filling out an application, but I did so many last year that I..."

Holding up a hand, Bill silenced her. "I lied to you, Celia. I'm not here to talk to you about being an intern."

Crestfallen, Celia's entire demeanor changed. "You're not?"

That was when Bill smiled and said the magic words. "This may come as a surprise, it certainly was to me when I found out, but you're my daughter."

B&B

RJ stood in front of the door to his loft and sighed. Liam hadn't wanted to leave him alone, not after RJ's new phone had exploded with calls and texts over the fucking tape. Reaching into his pocket, RJ pulled out the shattered remains of the device and stared at them.

"Just go fuck my mother already," RJ whispered, repeating the words he had hissed when his friend offered to spend the night with him. He regretted that, and he desperately wanted to apologize. The hurt look on Liam's face haunted him.

The door to the loft wasn't locked. Noah had probably forgotten after he moved all of his stuff out. But when RJ pushed it open, the loft wasn't empty.

"Oh, hello, Chooky! We were wondering when you would get back. Desiree, your cousin is home!"

"Who the hell are you? Who is Desiree?" RJ asked, carefully stepping into his apartment. He had no idea who the woman was, or why she was smoking in his loft.

"She means me. My poor mother hasn't been quite right ever since the stroke."

RJ's blood went cold and he slowly turned towards the voice. She was sitting on his bed, holding the guitar Noah had bought all those months ago. A fox stole hung over her shoulders and valuable jewels dripped from her ears and fingers.

"You... You're..." RJ stuttered, unable to complete his thought.

"Surprise, Bitch," Ivy said, tossing her hair over her shoulder and giving her cousin a Cheshire smile. "I bet you thought you'd seen the last of me."

"You're dead!" RJ screamed, stumbling backwards into the door and accidentally slamming it shut. "And a terrorist!"

"Rumours of my demise, much like my alleged criminal activity, have been greatly exaggerated, my miniscule little cousin." Ivy sat the guitar on the bed and rose to her full height. "You will be happy to know that all proper authorities have cleared me of those erroneous charges those fools in New York brought against me. I am an innocent woman. And I need your help, RJ."

"What can I do? Why would I help you with anything?!" RJ was terrified and sore and exhausted. Ivy could tell and he knew that it pleased her.

“It's simple, you tiny fool." Ivy sauntered across the loft until she was looking directly down at RJ. She slammed her hand on the wall beside his head and he flinched. "I'm going to scratch your back, and you're going to scratch mine."

"How?" RJ squeaked fearfully.

Pulling back, Ivy kept that same threatening grin on her face as she looked to her mother and nodded. "You're going to put us up here. You're going to get me my job back at Forrester. And until that happens, you're not going to tell anyone I'm here."

"Why would I do any of those things?" Even though he wanted to vomit, RJ did his best to keep his voice steady. "I don't even work at Forrester. I never did! You know this."

"But your brother is the CEO, RJ. You help me, I help you, you wretched little poofter. You get me back in at Forrester Creations, and I will do everything in my power to see that Ridge and Steffy are destroyed. For good."

Ivy held her hand out to RJ, and for several seconds he just stared at it. Then, with a shaky hand, he reached out and grabbed it. Her grip was like iron.

"Dez!" Ivy's mother yelled from her seat. "Where's Shakira?"

"Mother, I don't have a fucking daughter, you stupid bitch!" Ivy yelled back hatefully. "Can I please plot the demise of my enemies without being interrupted by your idiotic delusions?"


End file.
